It's Not OK
by Moonsetta
Summary: Sequel to "You Have No Idea" What did Don mean when he told Leo, "Well, you won't be here for much longer"?
1. Preview

Hey everyone! I'm back with a new story! Well remember how everyone wanted a sequel to "You Have No Idea"? Well, here it is. I did have a sequel already written but I really didn't like it so I deleted it from my computer. In the end I decided to start from scratch and rewrite the sequel completely, I think I'll follow the same out line I originally planned, though I want to change a few small things in the plot.

Well, I hope you like this little preview. I'll be busy with a lot of work for the next few weeks so I hope this is enough to hold on to for now.

I don't own TMNT.

* * *

The Art of Brotherhood

Preview:

Raph ran a hand over his forehead, wiping away the sweat that trailed it's way down his face.

"Hey Raph," a voice said in the doorway.

The red masked turtle glanced up and forced a smile across his face, "Hey bro. You ok?"

The blue masked turtle in the doorway shrugged before stepping away and walking back through the main room of their lair. Raph took a deep breath before running after his older brother, "Leo wait."

The older turtle turned and set his eyes in curiosity at his red masked brother, "Yes?"

Raph narrowed his eyes, "Don't you dare lie to me."

"Raph, how do you think I'm doing?" Leo glared at Raph but thought better of the gesture and turned it to the floor, "It's only days until-"

"We'll find something Leo," Raph said supportively, "Don and April have been working non stop."

Leo curled his right hand into a fist at his side as his left hand rose and settled over his heart before curling into a fist as well. Raph frowned as sorrow filled him. He reached out and set a hand on Leo's shoulder, "You're going to be ok Leo. You'll be fine."

Leo bent his head forwards, shadows casting his face in darkness as he began to tremble, "Why couldn't I have just died in Central America! Or in Winter's tower! It would be better than this!"

Raph narrowed his eyes in a glare and forced Leo to look up at him, "Don't you dare talk like that bro. We'll find a way, I know we will."

The eldest turtle was still trembling and tears pricked the corners of his eyes but Raph wouldn't let him look away so he simply closed his eyes and tried to breathe deeply. Despite every exercise he had learned throughout the years to control his emotions they all seemed pointless now. He felt feeling leave his legs and his knees buckled sending the blue clad turtle to the ground, his younger brother following, pulling his older brother into a hug as his eyes found all the sorrow of the situation and let them bleed into his mind. Raph sighed and held his brother close as Leo cried into his shoulder.

"It's ok to be scared Leo, we all are," Raph whispered softly.

"Yeah, but none of you are dieing," Leo muttered.

The younger turtle sighed and looked up as his purple masked immediate younger brother walked into the room and out of his lab. Donatello had large circles under his eyes, showing he hadn't slept in days and his shaking form showed that he had only lasted this long because of large consumptions of caffeine. When Don's eyes fell upon his blue clad brother he gulped, he should've never told Leo that he was dieing. Should've never revealed to his family that an examination had revealed a damaged heart valve inside their blue masked older brother. The chemicals had already destroyed most of the heart valve and it was just barely allowing blood to pass through it. If Leo didn't receive a replacement within the next two weeks, his heart would fail. When the genius turtle had revealed it to Leo months ago, he knew exactly how long Leo had before his heart would just be too weak to support him. He knew his oldest brother had six months to live and now, those six months had become one week.

He had had to explain it in hinting terminology, he just didn't have the heart to come right out and say, "Well Leo, one of your heart valves is slowly deteriorating away and you've got six months until you're pretty much road kill. Oh and you can't be a ninja any longer."

"Yeah, that would've gone over well," Don thought sarcastically as he ducked into the kitchen and poured himself another cup of coffee, heavy on the caffeine.

He had to find an answer in time. One week, the genius turtle had one week. He glanced at the calendar where days were marked off, ok so he had stayed up the entire weekend, so he had five days. Five days. Five days until… He gulped at the thought and hurried back to his lab, getting on his computer to hack into private networks, hoping to find something, cursing when the pages took too long to load and turning occasionally to warm or cool chemicals he was working with. It wasn't as if one of them could donate a heart valve to their brother. Unlike humans there wasn't exactly a way to build an artificial heart valve for them nor was there a place to get a new one.

Five days…he hoped….he prayed.

* * *

So now you know how those chemicals affected Leo, but will Don find an answer? Will he find it in time? This story well…you'll be surprised by the ending. I promise you. Let's just say it won't end how my stories normally end. Actually I've never ended a story the way I'm going to end this one. Hmm…

Well, leave a review if you feel like it, or if you want to know what ultimately happens.

~Moonsetta


	2. Chapter 1

Ok, time for the first chapter, hope you liked the preview/prologue.

I don't own TMNT.

* * *

Don sighed and carried another large cup of coffee into his room. He glanced at the digital clock sitting next to his computer to read the time.

3:30am

"Maybe I should get to bed," Don thought and then shook his head violently, "Leo's the one who needs the most sleep."

His weakened heart valve was causing his heart to suffer and waste away from the lack of oxygen. The purple clad genius turtle would've done the math and figured out exactly how many more heartbeats that his brother had left, but he had to focus on finding something to help Leo. Online articles, many on sites the tech-loving turtle had to hack, revealed locations, scientific observations and possible replacements, for _humans. _That's where the trouble was, since they were mutant turtles their organs were different. Their hearts were much larger than a human's, so even if they could find these replacement heart valves, it would be a miracle if they found one that fit much less one that could handle the pressure without breaking and deteriorating in the bloodstream. Then of course, there was the matter of the surgery that would be needed. The purple clad turtle shivered and walked up to his computer, it and the digital clock the only things that lit up the dark room. Don sighed and sat his cup of coffee down before reaching out to grab the back of the computer chair he always sat in when researching anything.

He almost moved to sit down when…

"Go corndog…uh,"

The purple clad turtle glanced down to see his younger brother asleep in the chair, his head resting on his crossed arms where they lay across the keyboard. Don frowned and gently shook Mikey's shoulder. The younger turtle opened his blue eyes, that were slightly duller than usual and glanced up at his older brother.

"Mikey what are you doing here?" Don asked with a slight glare, he didn't have time to deal with his little brother, he had to find an answer!

"Just looking up video game cheats, I thought you were going to bed," Mikey said with wide eyes as he closed the screen he was viewing before Don could see it.

Don's eyes narrowed in determination, "Not until I find some answers."

The orange clad turtle went to speak up but snapped his beak shut before getting to his feet, surrendering the chair to his older brother.

"Good luck," Mikey said quietly and slipped outside the lab and into the main room. He glanced at the couch to see his red and blue masked older brothers watching TV, like nothing was really going on and they had forever to waste! Mikey glared at them from a distance and then exited the main room and quickly stomped through the hallways, slamming the door to his bedroom as he continued stomping into his room.

* * *

The purple clad turtle opened a new web browser and ran through the web browsing history. With the program he had it stored every visited link from the past week. Finding the URL of the site Mikey had been on he clicked it.

"What was Mikey really looking at?" Don wondered, "I know it wasn't cheat codes for his video games."

When the page loaded Don frowned and his eyes drooped, along with his shoulders. Right on the screen, was a research facility that built custom heart valves. The purple clad turtle sighed. Even if they could get the right size and strength heart valves, there was still the matter of time. Mechanical heart valves lasted a long time, on average 20 to 30 years. It wasn't like those were just laying around for them to pick up. Sighing, Don read the article anyways. He found a lot of what he previously read. A Biological valve was another alternative but humans mostly got these from pigs since the heart system of both species was very similar, so where would a mutant turtle get one, it couldn't be from a normal turtle or human. They were too different. Plus, there was the possibility that the body would reject it.

The article went on to talk about open heart surgeries and a practice that took biological tissues from cows and horses and sewed them into metal frames to work as heart valves. Again though, this was from humans and even if by some miracle the purple clad turtle could find a replacement heart valve, there were so many factors in making it all work out.

Don closed the window and yawned, looks like his three hour nap didn't do much to help. He opened an old browsing window before the article he had previously been viewing popped up on the screen again. He got annoyed and moved the mouse up to close it again when the cursor ran over the browser history button and showed that the window had been opened and used for the past three hours. Don frowned, Mikey was trying to help, trying to find an answer. Yes, this research facility could be what they needed but even if they did order a customized heart valve, the order would be strange. So strange that it would be…suspicious. Besides, the money had to be paid in advance and wasn't like they had $45,000 just tucked in their mattresses. And that was the minimum price. The facility also needed to know the procedure, specialist's name and name of the hospital where the surgery was being preformed.

Too many factors, too many.

* * *

Back in Mikey's room, the youngest turtle sat in silence, glancing down at a notebook in his lap from where he was sitting on his bed. He sat still for a few seconds before climbing to his feet. He walked towards his closet, banging his leg against a drum set he had set up that used to drive his brothers crazy all the time. He didn't really feel it though and he had played it show much in the past that none of his brothers came to investigate. The orange clad turtle slid aside his closet door and ducked inside, after digging through a bunch of random objects he found what he was looking for, a large stack of old newspapers. He crossed the room and sat on his bed again, flipping through the papers, looking for something. Finally, after ten minutes, he found the small article and studied it. After skimming through it he tore it out of the paper and sat it on top of the notebook throwing the remaining newspapers under the bed. He

He sighed and scooped up the notebook again…glancing down at the article.

**Saint Marie-Claire Hospital**

-Building abandoned in 1975

The orange clad turtle had already looked the hospital up. On the many articles he had read, it was mentioned as a still active medical facility. He stuck his head out the door and crept down the hallway, the main room was empty. Don was in his lab, Raph and Leo were probably in the dojo, meditating since Leo couldn't train. Light was coming from underneath Splinter's door. He was meditating again too. He had been doing that a lot lately. Mikey saw the phone and silently slinked over to it.

He had lost his oldest brother twice, it wasn't going to happen again. He picked up the receiver and dialed in an old number the turtles had rarely seen fit to call, ever. The phone rang four times before the line was picked up.

"Hello, who is this?"

Mikey gulped and he spoke hesitantly, "Hi Professor Perry."

* * *

Ok, if you don't know who Professor Perry is, I suggest you go watch the second movie and yes, I'm aware that I'm not focusing that much on Leo and/or Raph in this chapter. I'm trying to avoid that, at least for the time being. I don't really see Michelangelo always acting like the baby though so he's stepping up in this story.

This is it for now. Reviews please? I want to hurry up and post the next chapter.

~Moonsetta


	3. Chapter 2

Hey everyone! My computer finally got back to me after I sent it off for a tune up so I decided to celebrate by posting this long awaited chapter to the sequel of the famous story 'You Have No Idea' and yes, I changed the title. 'The Art of Brotherhood' was just there to hold the title's place while I thought of one. So here's the next installment of the newly named 'It's Not Ok'

I do not own the bipedal team of mutated terrapin adolescent ninja warriors. But I did just get a new turtle. YAY!

* * *

It was 11:00pm later that night when the youngest woke up to a loud crash from the kitchen. He ran out of his room only to nearly run into Raph. They both stopped for a short enough moment to glance down and spot their purple clad brother rushing from his lab and into the kitchen. Raph was the next one in the kitchen and Mikey only continued to look on with a confused face as he watched Donatello escort their father out of the kitchen. The elderly rat looked torn and his normal inquisitive eyes were dull and void of the familiar lively concern and care for his sons he used to posses.

Splinter retreated into his room, like he had seemed to do for many months the past few weeks and Donatello returned to his lab, his gaze set determined on a frame in front of him the was standing up, the upper left corner stained red with a strong, foul smelling chemical. Mikey shook his head and jumped down into the main room and made his way silently to the kitchen door. He didn't stare step inside, just glanced around the corner to see what the kitchen was like.

He saw his blue banded brother leaning against the counter his shell to Raphael, who was standing behind him. The red masked turtle himself was frowning and reached out, resting a hand on Leo's shoulder.

"Leo?" Raph said in an unusual soft voice that the family was hearing more and more often.

Mikey noticed that Leo was gasping deeply, his chest rising and falling rapidly. He also noticed that the eldest's hands were resting on the countertop, and they were both curved into tight fists.

When Raph assured himself that Leo wouldn't push him away, he stepped around Leo, his hand still on the older turtle's shoulder. It was then that the red banded turtle noticed the blood running from wooden splinters down Leo's hands. A quick glance at the opposite side of the room revealed that a broken chair was the cause of the wooden splinters and the bleeding. Raph sighed largely and felt Leo's shoulder tense beneath his hand.

"What did he say this time?" Raph asked.

Leo's body shook for three seconds and the red clad turtle felt Leo's rapidly beating heart through the simple contact. Then, Leo tilted back his head, took two deep breaths and opened his dark ice brown eyes to stare at the ceiling for a few seconds before dropping his head down again and staring at his clenched hands. Raph reached out with his other hand and placed it over Leo's, a sign for him to calm down. In a few seconds, Leo's hands uncurled and laid flat on the countertop.

"Mikey," Leo said suddenly at the doorway.

Mikey jumped. How did Leo do that!

"Go check on Master Splinter," the blue masked turtle ordered, sighing in relief when he couldn't sense Michelangelo's presence near the door any longer.

"What did he say?" Raph said, repeating his question.

Leo scoffed and stepped away, letting the comforting hands slide away from him.

"Just more, you must rest, train your mind, and that-" Leo muttered the next word, one he would never normally use before he continued on, "Look of pity."

Raph mentally nodded, he could level on that. Neither of them wanted others looking at them when they were struggling for something and failing to grasp it. He then reached out and turned Leo to the table, they both sat down, each trying to think of something to say but both failing miserably until one thought broke the surface of both their minds.

"Seems like we were here before," Raph said, glancing across the room at the broken chair.

Then he remembered Leo's hands and got to his feet, "I'll be right back."

It was only seconds later that he returned with the medical kit and sat back down beside his older brother.

"I can take care of it," Leo said, pulling the kit towards him and unclasping the lock and lifting the lid.

Raph narrowed his eyes and was about to protest when he saw a spark in Leo's eyes that had been absent for awhile. Having nothing to do the red clad turtle got to his feet again and turned to the door, "I'm going to see Casey and April."

"Be careful," Leo warned in a whisper.

Raph had taken three steps towards the door but now turned and took three back to rest his hands on Leo's shoulders. He glanced around the room and then whispered quietly to Leo, "I'm gonna check in on something for ya."

"Be safe," Leo whispered again, laying out a cloth after wiping the still red plasma from his hands.

Raph remained silent for two seconds before turning back to the door and exiting the lair. The blue clad turtle sighed. It was unfair, his brothers had the choice to leave and the normally calm headed turtle found himself more stressed than ever. In a far part of his mind that tried to view the situation as funny he had to agree with it, dieing was stressful and had tendency to make you angry. He was mad that he couldn't train, he couldn't run, he couldn't jog and a pedometer at his belt counted how many steps he took. This was a precaution Don had established. Now, Leo could only take so many steps because the purple clad turtle had programmed a limited number of steps or number of times that Leo could stress his heart and the damaged heart valve.

"Hey bro," a voice said behind him.

"How is Master Splinter?" Leo asked as his youngest brother slid into the seat next to him.

"He's ok," Mikey said and then froze with wide eyes at the sight of his eldest brother's hands.

"I threw a chair against the wall," Leo explained.

Mikey forced himself to smile, "Well, it got what was coming to it. How dare one of it's legs be shorter than the other three."

Leo returned the forced smile as he picked up a pair of tweezers with his left hand to rid his right hand of the splinters of wood. He had five out when Mikey spoke up, "Do you want some help?"

No, not really. He didn't want any help. Leo glanced up and caught the same spark of pity in Mikey's eyes as Master Splinter had had. The blue clad turtle took a deep breath and reminded himself that it was Mikey. He couldn't really blame his baby brother for his own human nature.

"Yes," the eldest said, holding the tweezers out to Mikey.

The youngest smiled a true smile and took them gently while taking Leo's hand in his own, grasping a splinter and pulling it out as quickly and gently as possible. The two oldest turtles didn't normally accept help so Mikey felt a pride fill him as he finally found something to do that at least made it seem like it was helping. The eldest even let Mikey bandage his hands. Still, Mikey was glad to be helpful. As the blue masked turtle looked away to put the supplies away Mikey bit his lip in nervous excitement. His talk with Professor Perry had left him with a spark of hope but he didn't want the others to get excited when it still only a maybe. The smile returned to his face when his older brother glanced back at him.

"I'll put it away," Mikey said, his bright smile still on his face.

"Hey Mikey," Leo's hand closed around the youngest wrist when he had gotten to his feet to put away the kit.

"Hmm?"

"Why don't we play a video game before dinner? Just you and me?"

Mikey would've jumped out of his shell if possible, ever since their victory over the Stone Generals at Winter's tower, Leo had pretty much only spent time with Raph and the youngest could barely get any time with Leo.

"AWESOME DUDE!" Mikey shouted, "I just got these awesome new cheat codes for Ballistics Commandoes 5!"

Leo sighed but smiled as Mikey pulled him to his feet and over to the couch in their living room.

* * *

In Splinter's room, it's occupant was staring sadly down at the dark stones that made up the floor. He had assured his youngest that he was well but lost his normal expression to an overbearing frown when his son left the room without a backwards glance at him. The aging ninja master closed his eyes slowly, regretting how he had spoken to his eldest son. Truthfully, Splinter had only been attempting to help Leo endure the period of uncertainty. Despite watching his son grow and learn for 15 years, there was an absence of two years. Two years of secrets and experiences that were void in the rat's mind.

Splinter had seen over the years how his sons relied on one another when they were weak. The elderly gray rat had to admit that tearing away a piece of this perfect puzzle had proved disastrous both to Leo, living in a jungle 2,000 miles from the place he had called home for 15 years, and to the family left behind. After the Winter's incident, the family's bonds grew strong once again but Splinter could feel the pull, as if were physical. He was OLD. There was no denying this fact and his teenage sons were becoming young adults, growing up quickly in front of his eyes. Growing too fast for him.

This was a truth, Splinter was now the one that was 2,000 miles away. He knew that the demanded slow movements and inactivity were both quite angering Leonardo and commonly, the elderly rat was the one that could sooth this anger with a few caring words, but the blue clad leader was no longer out to his father for help. Years before it was Raphael that held such an anger in him and usually Leonardo was the one that endured it. Now, ironically, the roles had switched. After their battle at Winter's tower, the eldest had been turning to his red masked brother for support, just lately he had begun to be absorbed back into Mikey's and Donny's lives as well.

Splinter opened his eyes and was surprised to see a drop moisture fall from his face and onto the floor. It would be time soon, because the team of brothers wouldn't need him for much longer. Although everyone did part from loved ones eventually, the elderly ninja master couldn't imagine anyone feeling the equal strain of regret and sadness he felt ripping through him.

He was losing his family.

* * *

Whew…what an update. I've decided to take a break from A New Start and my current collabs. Truthfully with the collabs I can't think of anything to further them along.

Well please review. This story I'm planning maybe, six chapters, so it won't be as long a YHNI. But please review or I'll never have the drive to finish it.

PLEASE!

*Holds up chibi turtles with wide eyes*

PLEASE!

Ok that's enough begging. Bye!

~Moonsetta


	4. Chapter 3

WOW AN UPDATE FOR "It's Not OK" aren't you surprised?

Yeah, me too. ^_^

* * *

"What the shell am I supposed to be learning!" Raph yelled as he paced back and forth across the dojo.

Leo, who was meditating a few feet away opened one eye, "That's for you to discover Raphael."

Raph gritted his teeth as he turned to his older brother, "Discover what? The exercises don't make any sense. Can't you help a little?"

Leo hummed for a few seconds before opening his eyes, "If you stop pacing, you're making me dizzy even _with _my eyes closed."

"Fine," he huffed and walked the few feet before sitting down next to the blue clad turtle.

Silence.

Silence.

"Well?" Raph asked harshly.

Leo sighed silently and opened both his eyes before turning to face his younger brother, "Ok, explain the kind of exercises he's had you do and what happened."

"Is this supposed to be one of those self discovery mystic mumbo jumbo experiences?"

Leo laughed quietly, "Partially, although that's not the lesson."

Raph groaned and dropped his head into his hands, trying to fight an incoming headache, "Fine. Ok, first was fighting blind."

"And what did you feel during that?"

"A freaking lot a pain because he kept hitting me."

"Anything else?"

"I kinda wished I was you, you've had that kind of training before and mastered it."

Leo nodded, "That's your first clue and your first step."

"Alright, I could say many things, but I'm just going to leave it at, huh?"

Leo laughed silently again, "You'll figure it out in time. What happened next?"

"Next, was finding my way through that maze of broken down tunnels beyond that southwestern sewage junction."

"What did you feel then?"

"Confused, aggravated, wishing I had Don there to help, he's good at puzzles."

"And your final exercise of the day?"

"Dodging swinging axe blades, but I wasn't fast enough to dodge them all. That's more of an exercise for Mikey."

"Correct," Leo said, eyeing the bandages wrapped around Raph's arms.

Leo felt a slight sting, like the tip of a needle entering his heart before the Fearless Leader took control.

_No emotion…No emotion_

Leo shook his head and let the emotionless mask cover his face.

"You've already learned the lesson, you just don't know it Raphael."

The red masked turtle rolled his eyes, "Great more spiritual stances."

It didn't seem like it would happen again, but it did. Leo's mouth turned up into a prideful and arrogant smile. Raph smirked, he hardly ever got to see that, heck no one had seen it except him since his older brother had returned from the jungle and his two year training period. But what did Leo learn 2,000 miles away that Splinter expected him to learn here in the city?

"You'll get in time Raphael," Leo said.

"Whatever," Raph spat, proving through all that had had happened, that he was still the hothead that his family knew and loved.

An uncomfortable silence stretched between them.

"How was your visit to April and Casey's?" Leo asked.

Raph huffed and turned his head away, "Fine, nothing new."

"How about Keno? You went to see him the other day."

"He's looking for his own place now. He's growing up."

Leo's smile only turned up at one end, "He's not the only one."

"What do you mean?"

Leo laughed quietly, "Nothing."

"Nothing huh?" Raph said, raising a curious gaze to meet Leo's guarded one.

The red clad turtle dropped it for the moment, turning his mind on the more important thoughts roaming around in his head.

"Ah, I checked on that 'thing' for you," Raph muttered.

"You've never explained what that 'thing' is," Leo said, his own eyes turning, not exactly curious but prodding and poking.

"It's something that may help, I've had Dan looking in on it from time to time."

"Dan?"

"Danny."

"Oh, the son of April's boss?"

Raph nodded, "The very one, that kid's quite a ninja, he's a good fighter and a great spy. Turns out that TGRI is getting something shipped to them."

"What is it?" Leo asked.

"Some kind of machine. I'm pretty sure if I can get to April's she could figure out how to work it."

"And what is this machine?"

"Who do I look like, Don?"

"Do the others know?"

"No way bro," Raph said, holding up a hand, "Look I'm gonna give it back, but it can get you what you need, a new heart valve."

Leo's eyes grew wide, "It can?"

"Dan said it's experimental…"

"I don't care!" Leo sai suddenly, cursing when he felt his pulse sky rocket, "If there's a chance-"

"Whoa, calm down bro," Raph said before glancing towards the doorway and listening for any footsteps or voices.

When no noise entered his ear, he leaned over and continued in a whisper, "Look, I don't want to get the others mixed up in it, understand?"

Leo nodded, "Of course."

"Look, just be at April's on Thursday night."

They fell into more silence, the red clad turtle hoping that this wouldn't be some wild goose chase.

Unfortunately, it was the curveball that fate just loved to throw at them.

* * *

"So everything's good?" Mikey whispered into the phone, glancing around the main room of his home cautiously, catching the light and silence from the dojo, concluding that Raph and Leo were meditating or working on their ninja stealth, so they could train without being caught; darkness under his father's door proved that Splinter was asleep; and the soft blue glow of a computer screen said that the purple clad turtle was hard at work.

"Yes Michelangelo, it will be shipped on Thursday, have Leonardo at the factory by 6:00pm."

"Gotcha!" Mikey said loudly before he began whispering again, this time the edge of thanks overcame his voice, "Thank you Professor. Thank you."

The youngest turtle smiled as he said his goodbyes to their old friend and then hung up the phone with a satisfied sigh.

"I won't lose my brother **again**," he thought with an internal, defiant tone.

* * *

Don rubbed the sleep from his eyes and yawned before dumping most of his coffee into his mouth. A quick glance towards that calendar had him cursing under his breath and he choked down another cup of coffee like a desperate man would chug down alcohol. He hummed before he let his hand fall onto the mouse on the computer and continued hacking into the transmission stream. The tags of heart valve and life had returned numerous files and networks he had hacked in to, but all of them had a condition that they couldn't supply or even fake.

Then, his eyes fell on the screen and they nearly popped out of his head as he quickly ran over the report.

"That's it!" he yelled and turned to run out the door, grabbing his duffel bag on the way.

He stopped himself just in time to sneak quickly and quietly past the kitchen, where Mikey was mixing random vegetables into a thin sauce.

"Soup tonight," Don thought as the door to the lair slid open and he darted out before anyone could catch him.

It was true that the genius turtle hadn't read _all _of the article, all he had read, was the machine, what it could accomplish and where it currently was, a warehouse on the corner of West-Broad and 5th.

He couldn't wait until Thursday when it shipped out. Security would be tight, but he had to get that machine. Of course, for the purple clad turtle _nothing _was going to go right.

* * *

Actually, I think this story may turn out longer than I originally planned.

Well anyways, I'm totally convinced that by the 6th chapter I will be ready to shove it through a shredder, no pun intended.

If you want to convince me otherwise, please attempt said persuasion in a review.

~Moonsetta


	5. Chapter 4

Seriously readers, to ye that remain. This story is so annoying! I am ready to physically rip it out of the hard rive and vaporize it with one of those guns they used in Star Trek 40 years ago!

In other news, it's an update!

* * *

"See ya guys, I'm going out for a run!" Raph yelled back.

Leo almost spoke up, but then thought better of it as he heard the soft humming of his younger brother in the kitchen.

Patrol with Raph or cooking dinner with Mikey?

The eldest felt cold as his shoulders slumped, somehow he felt that both would end with a large explosion.

He sighed and made his way to his younger brother's lab, where he found it empty, a quick glance around the room revealed that Don's duffel bag was also gone. The blue clad turtle sighed, he wished Don would give them some kind of warning before he ran off to the junkyard.

Condemned to the silence and not wishing to check on his father, Leo made his way up to his room, pulling a book from his bookshelf before falling down on his bed in complete boredom. He sighed and glanced up at the book he held above his head as he laid flat on his shell.

He hated this bed!

The mattress, although it was the thin mattress of the futon he had always slept on, was too thick and soft now. He angrily got off the bed and sat on the floor. Even the stones didn't feel right. Half a year, and he still couldn't get used to the feeling of his home. Which was strange because he was usually great at adapting, they all were. The chemically mixed and enhanced stones that were placed together in the constructive manner they were beneath him just felt, wrong. Rocks didn't naturally form next to each other, and rarely were they shaped so perfectly. He pushed the thoughts aside and raised the book again before tossing it aside.

Idiot! No matter how good of a ninja you are YOU CAN'T READ IN THE DARK!

He haven't even bothered to turn the light on.

That was one of many lessons he had learned when away, nature had her own mind, you couldn't manipulate it. When you tried and went too far, she struck back, HARD. So he found himself forgetting simple things, like flipping the light switch. He debated with himself for a good three minutes rather to get up and flip the switch or not. He was curious if the ancient thing still worked. He sighed again and closed his eyes, feeling along the floor with his fingertips.

Ok, he was bored.

He asked himself, "What would the Ghost of the Jungle do?"

A voice in the back of his head spoke, "He'd go home."

Mimicking the look of a hypnotized victim Leo rose to his feet, walked out the door, jumped down into the main room, glanced around to happily find the area empty and rushed out the front door. He remembered his feet splashing through murky, unclean water, hitting concrete numerous times and then stopping to breathe in slightly cleaner air when there were grass, leaves and dirt once again beneath his feet.

* * *

"So it's a printer?" Raph asked as he sat across from April at her kitchen table.

The red head nodded before turning her laptop around to face the red banded turtle, "Exactly, it prints the person's input heart value blueprints one layer of cells at a time."

"Science goes over my head at how they manage to do this," Raph muttered at he looked at the small picture on the screen, his arms folded and resting before him on the table.

"It is pretty remarkable," April commented, "But it's complicated to build, even harder to maintain, the machinery's delicate."

"But if I got it here you could do it, right?' Raph asked, pointedly staring down at his friend.

"Raph-" she began but stopped, thought for a few seconds and then continued, "Yes I'm sure I could make and keep the heart valve ready for a transplant, but completing the transplant is an entirely different thing! You're asking me to perform surgery on Leo!"

Then April's voice grew softer, "Can't you ask Don?"

"NO!" Raph said, growling and slamming his fist on the table, making the laptop and April jump, "You ain't seen him April. He's been searching for an answer for the past 6 months, and it's hit extreme for the past two weeks. The closer that heart valve gets to failing, the closer Don gets to insanity. He doesn't sleep more than an hour, we barely get him to eat, the only thing he'll drink is coffee to keep himself up and the closet he'll swallow to medicine if caffeine tablets."

Raph took a deep breath, "Look, I'd involve Don, but he's barely clinging to his own mind, and even if I did, it ain't that I don't trust him but, even if we could get what's needed, I doubt he'd be up for the surgery."

April frowned, that was true, she hadn't checked up on her turtle friends for some time now but, she had her own doubts. Putting a sling on Casey after he went out on his vigilante nights and got his arm busted up was different than cutting open one of her friends, taking out something and then putting that new something in.

"April," Raph spoke softly, "We're running out of options and _time_."

April sighed and hung her head before gulping and nodding discretely as possible.

"Thanks April," Raph said, the relief spreading over his face.

At the look on his friend's face though, the red clad turtle grew concerned. The hotheaded turtle, in a show of compassion, reached out and rested his three fingered hand on top of April's.

"We're just asking for your best, if the worst happens, he won't be any worse off than well-" Raph paused before sighing, "We ain't asking for a miracle April."

"But you still expect one."

"I have to."

* * *

Don breathed silently as he crept along the shadow drenched wall. Ok, so it was a big scientific experiment, but that didn't mean that they had to build an army base around it. Well, ok, maybe they did, but it wasn't making things very easy for him. Footsteps near him had the purple clad turtle holding his breath. When they stopped he felt like screaming but then he breathed a very verbal sound of relief when the footsteps faded off into the distance. He glanced around, making sure the coast was clear before climbing up a column of crates and underneath a security camera. He opened the bottom and crisscrossed the wires. He had 10 seconds.

That was of course, plenty of time for him to safely cross the next three corridors. Ok, now he was in the main hallway.

Ok, the first hallway was lined with infrared lasers. Simple ninja stealth.

Don breathed a sigh of exasperation when he got to the next hallway. That was easy. Good thing he had had ninjitsu training almost all his life! He turned to the next hallways, there were still a few to go before he could reach the sealed room. Let's see this hallway-

Don looked down at the schematics he had taken from one of the utility workers on the other side of the building. Ok, motion sensor. How was he going to get past this? The lines on the diagram showed that the sensing beam reached 20 feet. The purple clad turtle glanced down the next hallway, spotting the transmitter above the doorway into the next hallway.

He rolled his eyes and stuffed the papers back into his duffel bag before pulling out a white sheet.

"Why must the majority of humans be so intellectually inferior?" Don thought, holding up the white sheet and walking down the corridor.

No alarm sounded and he stuffed the sheet inside his duffel bag again, thinking that maybe, that was what many people saw when they saw a ghost, someone wearing a white sheet to get past a motion sensor. Don shook his head, he had to stay focused. Looking over the papers again he found the next hallway was rigged with a heat sensor. Lets see, there weren't any refrigerators or freezers around with long power cords so…

Don reached into his duffel bag again and took out a frame of paned glass.

(A/N: Ever notice Don uses that duffel bag like Batman uses his utility belt? They fit everything in there! And I can never figure out how.)

Remembering the shuko spikes in his belt he quickly scaled the wall until he was directly underneath the sensor. After a careful placement of the planed glass, he jumped off the wall and smiled when the alarm still didn't sound.

"Lame security measures," Don thought as he reached the darkened doorway of the locked room. The lock revealed to be a fingerprint door lock.

A sign on the side revealed the guards' hours of watch. Quick footsteps behind the purple clad turtle had him ducking behind a corner, when the gray suited guard stopped because of a strange sound he had heard, he only managed three seconds of clarity before his sight and mind went black.

"Man, time to cut out your doughnut breaks," Don muttered as he dragged the slightly chubby man towards the lock. Placing the unconscious man's finger on the scanner the door opened with a resounding click.

"Thanks," Don said with a smile as he dumped the man on the floor. He scanned the inner dark room for cameras and cursed when he saw two at intersecting angles. Darn, he couldn't get to one without being spotted by the other and he was convinced that those cameras weren't all the security measures that were there. A quick glance at the floor revealed an output for what he reasoned was an infrared sensor beam.

"Great," he thought with a sigh.

He could take out the cameras with the electric-shock shuriken he had developed, but people would run to see what happened when the cameras went off. He bit his lip and pulled out a laser pointer from his belt . Ok, he had to do this right. He sat on his knees and pointed his laser up at an angle towards the one in the wall. A few seconds later, there was a small click and he was clear to get towards the cameras. Eyeing the safe door that made up the back wall, Don removed two of his electric shock shuriken from his duffel bag and took out the cameras. He guessed that he had like 30 seconds to open the large safe, grab the machine and get out. Don stepped forward to do just that-

When a cage fell down around him.

"You thought you could escape me by running 2,000 miles turtle?"

* * *

Yeah, this story's turning out longer than I imagined.

Anyways, I wanted to post this quickly, because I'm moving, yes…again. So after tomorrow I might not have an internet connection to use and that'll probably stretch out for a good week.

Now, when it comes to reviews, oh man…I am a hair width away from deleting this story. I was thinking about asking someone else to write a sequel, every time I try to write one it ends up terrible. I find it hard to believe that people are actually _reading _this story more than I can believe that I'm actually _writing _it!

Well, let me know if you want me to continue via reviews. Don't review if this thing is better off burning in my furnace.

~Moonsetta


	6. Chapter 5

Hey everyone, well, I've moved and must admit my new school is giving me more than my old school did so I may have even less time than usual. Although science class is like, repetitive for me and will be for the rest of the year. Well school aside I'm sick today so I thought I would update with this chapter.

I have to admit, I'm still thinking about trashing this story I know the science and anatomy has been and will be difficult to follow but we're going to steer away from it soon and get into the adventure. Which I hope turns out good.

Warning: Prepare your parachutes for immediate deployment and execution!

* * *

Professor Perry sighed through the extension, "Dr. Malkin please, we have many experiments lined up, one of extensive importance to the scientific community."

"I'm sorry but the machine is purely experimental and is returning to it's previous departure point."

"And that would be?"

"We have a facility that was constructed within a jungle located in Central America. My apologies but, I can not give out any other information. Have a good day professor."

With that the line went dead. Professor Perry glanced around at his office while he placed the receiver of the phone back down. He sighed again then picked up the receiver to call someone once again.

It rang once before the line was picked up.

"Professor Perry?" a voice whispered.

"Michelangelo," the professor spoke slowly, "I'm sorry."

"What do you mean doc?"

"The machine is being recalled."

"WHAT!"

"Mikey?" a voice yelled in the background, "Something wrong?"

"Nothing Leo! Just a customer for Cowabonga Carl!"

Shuffling assured the Professor that the blue clad turtle had left the room.

"Dude what do you mean it's been recalled."

"The current team believes that the transportation would be too harsh for the delicate machinery."

"Say what?"

"They fear the machine will break when moved here."

"Oh come on! can't you do something?"

"I'm sorry Michelangelo, I've tried all I can."

"Professor Perry, please tell me that you have another idea."

"There are two other options."

"What? What are they?"

"Chemicals to produce a state of suspended animation on the heart or…"

"Or!"

The Professor sighed for a third time, mentally telling himself that he did it too often, "The other option is cryogenics."

"Cry-ah what?"

"This has been done by many people in the past. They're frozen so their bodies remain in the same physical state for years until a cure is found for whatever was wrong with them, then they're unfrozen in hopes that they will have survived the procedure and survived."

"I don't like the word survived."

"Yes, it's possible that everyone who attempts it would die from the procedure."

"Dude, that does not sound positive."

"I know. What about the chemical induced suspended animation? As for now there's nothing that can be done to 'cure' him so to speak."

"Dude, Leo's already been through that once, I don't think he'd agree to it again. Shell, the first time he didn't even have a choice."

"There's not much more that can be done my friend."

On the other end the orange masked turtle sighed, "I'll think about it. This is so lame I had the fake hospital and false papers and everything! If I ever get my hands on whoever recalled that life saving machine, I'll tear them to pieces."

"I'm sorry Michelangelo."

"Enough said dude. I gotta go get some dinner started. Bye."

"Goodbye."

* * *

"I thought he went this way," Raph thought as he scanned the area of rooftops, searching for the flash of purple he had seen about half an hour ago.

Where had that annoying genius brother of his gotten to? The red banded turtle turned to jump to the next rooftop when a siren blared in the distance. It wasn't a police car, ambulance or fire truck. It was more of an alarm. He turned and saw the lights from a factory like building a few rooftops over spontaneously brighten up the night.

Thinking it was worth investigating he hoped over the rooftops, thinking he deserved applause for not being caught by the beams of the searching lights. When he reached the rooftop next to the building he crept to the edge and glanced over it. He saw…

A wall of a building…

With no windows…

One door…

And an armored truck hidden in the shadows.

The door opened and he ducked down and out of the way of a search light. Some guy below shouted, "All clear!" Before a group of uniformed men came out of the back door, carrying a large cage between them.

"Must be transporting some animal," Raph thought with a shrug before directing is eyes to the cage.

If it this was some kind of endangered species black market transport then he was going to get busy. His hands went to his sais as one of the spotlights started wondering towards the cage. What he saw stopped his breath.

"Don."

* * *

"LEO! RAPH! DONNY!"

A heavy breath escaped Michelangelo as he scanned the rooftops of the city, "Come on guys this was funny the first two hours but now it's just plain mean!"

The orange masked turtle crossed his arms before staring out over the rooftops, searching for a flash of green, purple, red or blue.

"If this is ninja hide-and-seek I am so not in the mood!" Mikey yelled, "Dinner's getting cold."

With still no answering calls Mikey set out looking for the colors he had seen all his life until-

Mike's breath caught in his throat then escaped with relief.

"Leo! There you are bro! I've been souring the whole city."

The orange banded turtle jumped down onto a rooftop which held a garden, breathing in the rare clean oxygen it gave its visitors. The youngest turtle had thankfully spotted his brothers' green and blue form in the garden after passing it twice.

The said blue banded turtle glanced up from where he was leaning against a thin tree and sighed. He had hoped to be there alone for awhile, this was as close as he could currently get to nature without leaving the city, which his family wouldn't allow.

"Hello Michelangelo," Leo spoke in a uncharacteristic deep voice.

"What, did you come up here to meditate?" Mikey asked, walking over and sitting beside his eldest brother.

"To calm down, get away, from annoying things," Leo said.

"Oh," Mikey whispered forlornly, completely getting the hunt, "I'll leave you alone then. I just wanted to find you to tell you that dinner is ready."

Silence.

Mikey tugged on the ends of his mask tails, "It's pizza."

Silence. The silent statement to leave him alone.

Mikey's eyes narrowed as they shined in the little light of the surrounding signs and lights in the city. Leo hadn't even opened his eyes through the short but entire conversation.

The orange masked turtle frowned and got up to continue his search for the others. He was at the edge of the rooftop when Leo spoke again.

"Raph won't stop following me around, Master Splinter's always checking on me and trying to 'encourage' me and last but not least I can't have a conversation with Donny without him asking me a million questions about my health."

Mikey grinned and turned around quickly, "You mean I'm not annoying?"

Leo chuckled quietly, "Mikey, you're my baby brother, you'll always be annoying."

"Aw…."

The eldest chuckled before opening his dark chocolate eyes and raising his arm in invitation, "You're just less annoying than them at the moment. Now come on. Baby brother."

Mikey's smile seemed to light up the whole world as he rushed to Leo's side and was enfolded in the offered arm. He laid his head on his older brother's shoulder and they remained like that for a minute before Mikey's smile fell into a frown and his eyes opened in the most sorrowful manner one could imagine.

"I don't want you die Leo."

"Me neither," the blue masked turtle said with a half sad smirk.

The youngest bit his lip, "Can you promise me something Leo?"

"That depends on what it is."

"Would you try anything and everything to stay with us?"

"Of course."

"Promise me," Mikey demanded.

Leo, confused but determined glanced over at his baby brother and forced a smile onto his face, "I promise you Michelangelo, I'll try everything possible to stay with you and our family."

Mike nodded sharply, "Good."

They sat there for a fair five minutes before Mikey shot to his feet, "I have to find Raph and Donny why don't you head home and warm up that pizza?'

Leo rolled his eyes, "Sure, if I must little brother."

Mikey pointed his finger in the direction of the nearest man hole, "Go back home young one."

Leo laughed and got to his feet before shaking his head, "Thanks Mikey. You've been a big help. I'm proud of you."

When the rooftop was Leo-less Mikey did a little short dance from that last statement. He could count on one hand the times that that had been said to him. After the short celebration he continued on with his search until he stopped at a lighted factory-like building where he heard the sound of a battle below him.

He glanced down then gritted his teeth before removing his nunchucks and growling a growl that would put Raphael to shame before descending into the battle.

"LEAVE MY BROTHERS ALONE!"

* * *

Leo had arrived home promptly and was currently sitting at the kitchen table, wondering at how long it would take Mikey to find Donny and Raph.

A slight shuffling outside warned him that his sensei was entering the kitchen. The eldest bowed his head and closed his eyes. He heard the rush of water from the faucet and then the clang as the tea kettle was placed on the stove top. The screeching of one of the chairs had Leo immediately getting to his feet and leaving the room. He found himself not caring if the pizza burned, just as long as he could avoid those eyes.

All was quiet except for the humming of Don's computer in his room. Leo took a deep breath, then turned towards the couch, maybe there was something worth watching on the news. Of course, before he could take one step, the front door flew open and a from hidden by the shadows stumbled in.

"Leo!" the form yelled before falling to their knees.

Recognizing the form as one of his brothers the eldest rushed to his sibling's side, his weakened heart completely forgotten. He reached out and pulled them into the light. The face was mask-less and when the form collapsed against him before green arms were around his neck and tears were dripping onto his shoulder.

"Leo…they-"

Heavy breaths or sobs, Leo wasn't sure which, escaped the brother in his arms before he noticed the shade of green skin.

"Bro," Leo whispered, kneeling down as the other's legs collapsed underneath him.

Familiar eyes glanced up at him.

"They took them!"

"Calm down," Leo said, trying to calm down, "Who?"

Two more deep breaths before shout.

"THE BLACK WOLVES! THEY GOT MIKEY AND DONNY!"

* * *

YAY! CLIFFHANGER!

Please review or I'll like-delete this story.

Is that a fair threat?

~Moonsetta


	7. Chapter 6

Hey everyone! I'M UPDATING! YAAAAAAAY! Anyways, a note, man these things are boring I have to stop writing them.

As you know, hopefully, the Black Wolves were the soldiers that had captured Leo in Central America portrayed in my story, You Have No Idea, which I hope everyone has read. I know that pretty much universally, everyone uses the name the Black Devils for the soldiers. I'm unsure if the whole Black Devils name is movie accurate but in case it isn't I don't want to get yelled at for copying that's why I'm sticking with the Black Wolves.

Ok, let's move on.

* * *

Wind whipped past them above an endless ocean.

"You sure you shouldn't be at home?" a form asked as two shadows stepped out onto the small, open cargo hold doors.

"They're my brothers too Raphael," Leo said slowly as the blue clad turtle switched his gaze to the horizon where the sun was no where in sight, though a small strip of light blue sky was still visible.

"You still ok?" Raph asked, gazing at how rapid Leo's chest was falling and rising.

Breathing was obviously difficult for him and his heart couldn't be doing much better. As land in the distance started appearing beneath, little chains of islands, Raph's expression couldn't decide between smirking and frowning. This was Thursday, it was supposed to be the night of that miracle that would save Leo's life. It had been his plan though, turtle luck, it never turned out right.

Silently, the red clad turtle cursed himself under his breath, some protector he had been, got knocked out and thrown in a dumpster while his little brothers had been carted away by the same people who were responsible for his older brother's 'illness.' He'd strangle every last one of them. What was worse that as soon as April and Casey had tracked down the information they had needed, Leo had been the first one out that door, at the airport and the first one on the plane. They had all tried to get him to stay in the city but he would have no of it. The hotheaded turtle expected that Leo had a little revenge in mind for himself.

Still, it was Thursday, two days. The blue clad turtle had two days and that was if he sat away and did nothing. Jumping off a plane and into the ocean below wasn't exactly the most heart calming experience for anyone.

"Let's go," Leo said, jumping off the open door and into the air, his red masked brother following a second later.

They both hit the shockingly cold water simultaneously and stayed underwater for a good few minutes. They didn't need the pilot of that plane radioing the local soldiers that there were two green creatures swimming in the bay. Both turtles rose above the water when the coast was clear and spit out what water they had swallowed.

"Should we rendezvous with Ape and Case?" Raph asked.

"No, we need to get there as soon as possible," Leo said with an underlying tone that sounded like a growl.

"ASAP, gotcha," the red clad turtle said as the same for the shore.

"This the right jungle?" Raph asked when both the terrapins finally stood on land again.

Silence.

"Leo?"

Raph turned and followed Leo's gaze towards one of the trees. There didn't seem to be anything strange about it at first but then the red clad turtle noticed three particular impressed holes in the bark. The blue masked turtle stepped forward and placed his hand against the bark, his fingers sliding easily into the three holes.

"Yes, this the right jungle," Leo said softly.

There was an easy silence between them for a moment before Leo dropped the bag he had been carrying to the ground and opened it up. He cringed at what laid within but he reached out and grabbed the item inside. Raph did the same only when he touched the object inside his backpack it struck another piece inside and let a clank echo through the silence between them.

"I never thought I'd be using this again," Raph whispered, withdrawing the Nightwatcher helmet from the backpack.

"I never ever imagined having to use this again either," Leo responded, drawing his Ghost of the Jungle cloak from his own backpack.

So it was only minutes later that Raphael and Leonardo Hamato had vanished, leaving the Nightwatcher and the Ghost of the Jungle sprinting through the forest.

Raph growled under his breath while Leo clutched at a red medallion around his neck, "We're coming."

* * *

Mikey awoke to the sound of distant drilling. Ok that was the last time he EVER dived head first into battle, how did Raph manage to walk away from it all the time. The orange clad turtle shook his head and opened his eyes. Then, he really wished he hadn't. All around him were large glowing tubs of green liquid with floating body parts in them. He felt sick.

"Mikey, are you ok?"

Mikey looked to his left where he noticed his older , purple banded brother chained to the wall. A quick attempt of movement assured him that he was in the same situation.

"Don, what happened?"

The purple masked turtle breathed a sigh of relief, at least the bump on Mikey's head apparently hadn't given him a concussion.

"I was being carried out of that building in a cage then Raph was there, you appeared out of nowhere, landed on your head and the last thing I remember was Raph getting thrown into the dumpster before all those soldiers turned on you.

"Good grief," Mikey said, thinking it was the perfect time to quote Charlie Brown, "Well, at least it can't get any worse."

A door opened and a red masked figure stepped inside, offering them no greeting.

Mikey and Don had their jaws dropped.

The genius turtle was the first to speak, "but, why would, how can, why have you R-"

A three fingered, green hand slapped itself over Don's mouth, a second one squeezed the youngest turtle's jaw shut.

"Now, is that any way to greet your brother?"

The green figure leaned forward, red mask tails dancing in front of Mikey and Don's faces.

"Come on, you two have an appointment with Dr. Malkin."

* * *

Dun dun dun! What a chapter! Sorry it's short but let me estimate I'd say there's 3 maybe 4 chapters of this story left. So please review!

REVIEW!

REVIEW!REVIEW!

REVIEW!REVIEW!

REVIEW!REVIEW!

REVIEW!REVIEW!

REVIEW!

Yes, I will sit here and type the word REVIEW out all day if it'll get me more reviews on this story.

~Moonsetta


	8. Chapter 7

Ya know, I am spoiling you guys rotten. TWO updates of the SAME story in ONE day! I must remember to go check my mental health after this, I have to be insane.

Oh well, the more insane, the better the writing.

What is it about INO that has me anxious to write these days? Probably the sequels I'm planning, but my poll needs more voters. For those of you who know what poll I'm speaking of, I warn you. Two of the options are TIED! It's still driving me insane.

Anyways, those who don't know, I'm talking about the poll on my profile. I will admit it now, I'm planning to write a sequel to one my stories. Willingly this time, but the problem is the sequel to I'm Sorry, Forgive Me, I apologize, Don't Hate Me is tied with the sequel to MY Brother.

Please take like 10 seconds to vote. PLEASE?

Ok, enough whining. To the chapter!

* * *

Any general would've been proud of any soldiers who could manage this bout. For any war fighting pride filled hero, the yard stood as a piece of true artwork.

Finding the facility deep in the jungle via instructions from April, who was still on the plane with Casey, had been simple. The two heroes knew that the hard part would be getting into the facility, the Black Wolves soldiers were everywhere on the compound. For the Ghost of the Jungle, he was still in the dark about this machine, but whatever it was, he was worried about his younger brothers inside the lab but slightly more about what his red banded brother had been thinking going after such a machine! If it was this important, that idiot would've been shot right on the spot!

Of course, this set off his normal instinct to lecture until the listener actually understood his point of view. The again, it kind of wasn't the time for such a thing, considering he was dodging bullets! There had been no back way in, so a frontal, head on attack had been their only option. And that was the reason the Ghost of the Jungle was using all the agility he possessed, grinning widely under his hood as he felt adrenaline rush through his veins, just like old times. He unsheathed his swords and as they flashed in the light, a gasp ripped through some of the soldiers. Many dropped their guns and ran away into the nearby canyon.

"The Ghost of the Jungle!"

"Aw, they missed me," Leo thought sarcastically with a wide smirk as he turned and kicked a gun armed soldier in the head, pushing him completely across the full span the battlefield.

The Nightwatcher himself was having even more fun, ah the flight of the Maniriki in his hands was thrilling as he closed his eyes during the strikes to hear the clank of the chain and the spiked end knocking people away. He had missed this.

Soon it was the team up of the century, the Ghost of the Jungle distracted the ones that were stupid enough to fire while the Nightwatcher charged at them from behind. Needless to say it wasn't long before the men were either high tailing it or unconscious and laying on the ground.

"Heh, that was fun," the Ghost of the Jungle said as he turned to send a proud smile towards his partner.

"Hey! A runner!" the Nightwatcher yelled, pointing behind the cloak draped turtle.

The Ghost of the Jungle turned and jumped into the forest, he couldn't let him get into the village, he'd call in for back up from the soldiers there!

The Nightwatcher growled, glancing between the retreating figures and the now unguarded facility. Finally reaching a probable decision he assured himself that his older brother could handle one measly soldier. Besides, these 'Black Wolves' as they called themselves were idiots and couldn't fight flies. With that thought in mind, he turned to the lab doors. Of course his positive thoughts back fired when he heard a familiar sounding yell in the distance.

_Oh no, Leo._

He was torn in indecision for all of two seconds before he hit the edge of trees, heading to where he had heard his brother yell. When he came upon the scene though, he found the Ghost tying the lone soldier to a tree and stuffing moss into his mouth.

The Nightwatcher chuckled, "It's not enough that you tie him up but now you torture him by stuffing moss down his throat?"

"Exactly," the cloaked terrapin answered with a grin.

"Genius, but it's missing something. Ah, I know."

With that the metal clad turtle pulled back the Maniriki hr held and aimed for the guy's head. The man himself kind of looked like he was pleading for mercy. Not truly heartless the metal turtle whipped the chain slightly to the right, creating a huge hold beside the man's head, who passed out from shock.

"He give you trouble bro?"

The Ghost of the Jungle turned and pointed to a large hole in the ground, "Pit trap, I'm not falling for it again."

"Let's go, we got two little brothers to save," the Nightwatcher said, heading back through the thick foliage of trees.

"Right," the phantom said as he followed him, smiling sardonically at the fact that for once _he himself _was doing the following.

Of course this did seem more logical in his mind, his brother had armor on. If it anyone was still at the facility they would shoot as soon as the two turtles reappeared. On second thought though, it seemed cowardly to use his brother as a kind of shield. That thought nailed permanently into his mind, the older turtle jumped into the tree branches above, getting ahead of the ground running turtle, who was running slower because of the added weight of his armor.

They finally arrived back at the science facility and oh would you believe it? Lucky them, as soon as they cleared the forest, bullets were everywhere, all aimed at the Nightwatcher but a few bouncing off his armor before he ducked behind a tree. The Ghost of the Jungle took the advantage and jumped far enough, with the assistance from a pliable branch, so he could knock out many of the gunmen from behind them. When they turned he thought he would have to duck into the building itself, but they took one look at his form and flew into the nearby conyon their buddies before had.

"Ai, the Ghost of the Jungle!"

"Dr. Malkin speaks the truth, the phantom returns to dine on our flesh!"

The Ghost scoffed, "Ok, that's just creepy."

"Wow you scared them s-"

"Can it metal mouth, this isn't the time," the cloaked turtle said as he walked over to check if any bullets had gotten past his brother's armor, thankfully, only a few dents in the metal were present.

"Let's get in there, I'm tired of all these surprises," the metal clad terrapin commented, stomping towards the door.

"Wait it's probably-"

_THUMP! CLANK!_

"Ow…"

The phantom spoke under his breath, "Magnetically sealed, if we had a-"

_RIP!_

_BANG!_

"Ok, that's one way to open the door."

Well, technically it was separating the door from the wall, not actually opening it, but the was kind of beside the point at the moment.

"All clear!" the Nightwatcher called, though he found the hallway suspicious, all the cameras that were mounted everywhere seemed to have gone dead, some even fell to the floor when he walked in.

He was suddenly stilled by a sound that seemed to explode in his ears. He turned at the sound. It was coughing?

His eyes grew wide in horror before he rushed back outside to his brother's side. The cloaked turtle was on his knees and coughing violently. The metal clad hoped with every molecule in his body that the liquid he saw dripping on the ground was saliva and not-

The metallic smell reached his nose.

No…but it couldn't be denied as the elder turtle pulled his hand away from his own mouth, in his hand lay a small pool of blood. The coughing returned. More blood.

"Aw shell, not now!" the Nightwatcher said, falling to his knees by his brother's side as the coughing spasm continued. He removed his helmet, set it aside and reached out to pull back the hood on the other turtle's head. A pause in the coughing gave him the opportunity he needed.

"Leo?"

The blue masked turtle looked up, "Raph, you have to go on."

"What? I can't leave you here!"

"You have to," the elder turtle whispered harshly before coughing up more blood again.

It was too obvious, the younger turtles had educated themselves well while searching for an answer. The strain HAD been too much. The heart valve had busted, which meant his heart wasn't getting enough oxygen and since they had larger hearts than humans, it was more harmful to them than it would be for a normal person to lose one.

The communicator tucked into Leo's belt rang out with a signal which Leo amazingly withdrew before another coughing fit erupted from him. Raph took the small radio and answered the call.

"April?"

"Raph, we've landed, where are you guys?"

"Look there's no time to talk. I got to get Mikey and Donny out of this place, just track the radio, bring whatever medical supplies you can get your hands on, Leo's not doing good."

"Was he hurt?"

"No it's… it's the heart valve. All of this was too much for it, it's busted."

"Oh my-"

"Get here ASAP."

"We're on our way Raph."

The red clad turtle set down the small radio, leaving it at Leo's side and waited for the current coughing fit to fade. When it did, he reached out and raised Leo's head to look at him.

"Leo, I have to leave you for just a few minutes. April and Casey are on their way, they'll help you. I'll get Mikey and Donny out of there."

The eldest nodded and his eyes drooped, he looked to ready to pass out. What was worse was that he was shivering but as Raph reached for his helmet, a grassy green hand reached out and stopped him. He glanced up and saw his older brother removing his cloak before holding it out to him, also breathing very heavily.

"Leo what-"

"Listen," the elder turtle said through deep breaths, "Take it. Dr. Malkin's just like the rest of those Black Wolves, if there's one thing they fear, it's the Ghost of the Jungle."

"No, you need it to keep warm," Raph protested, noticing that Leo's shivering had gotten more violent in the few seconds that had passed.

The blue masked turtle shook his head, "I fear if I fall asleep, I won't wake up. Warmth will only lure me into closing my eyes. I have to stay up. Take it."

Raph bit his lip before accepting the brown cloth, unsure if he should wait for Casey and April.

"Go Raphael," Leo ordered, "Get Mikey and Donny out of there."

The red masked turtle nodded before abandoning his metal outfit in favor of the light cloth of the cloak.

"Sure this'll work?" Raph asked but didn't get an answer because of a coughing fit and more blood.

"I'll be right back for you bro."

The blue clad turtle nodded and signaled for him to move on. The new Ghost of the Jungle turned and ran into the building. It was unfortunate that neither had seen the lone soldier, hiding within a hallow tree only feet away. The man grinned and withdrew a stake from his belt. It was normally used for laying the base rope to measure barbed wire fences but the eight inch long, pointed stake would sure drive quite a wedge into this defenseless freak's heart.

* * *

YAY! MORE SUSPENSE!

Whew, that was long.

Well, review please?

~Moonsetta


	9. Chapter 8

Ok, we're moving on!

You know, I think I'll finish this story before I continue working on my Super Turtles story. Yeah, I will, though I could use some ideas for Two Bad.

Well, I don't own TMNT and I still don't like the CGI movie, but I can't stop writing about it apparently. I do own Dr. Malkin, though I'd love to stuff him through the garbage disposal very violently.

Sorry that this chapter is **VERY **short.

* * *

He hit one door after the other until he pushed against one that wouldn't open. That's when the recently named new Ghost of the Jungle heard the shout.

"MIKEY!"

At this point, he promptly tore the door off like he had before, barely breaking a sweat. The cloak hiding him very effectively, he vanished into the shadows of the large laboratory.

He was sure his purple banded brother would enjoy the place, if he had a lab this big-

The cloaked turtle's thoughts were cut off after a familiar scream of terror.

"AAAHHH!"

"MIKEY!"

* * *

Don could hardly believe his eyes as his throat dried from the screaming. He tried again as the soldier drove the knife into his little brother's shoulder and twisted it painfully so the orange banded turtle attempted to hold back the yells of pain by biting his lip.

"Leave him alone!"

The knife was yanked out harshly while the soldier before him pressed his foot against the youngest turtle's plastron, making the terrapin flinch against the concrete floor.

The purple clad turtle was being held back with a soldier holding a gun against his head while he was sitting on his knees with his hands bound behind his shell.

"That's enough," a rough, raspy voice said from the far side of the room as a shadow drenched form walked around a gray topped, metal lab table.

The shadow looked over the objects, touching each one with care and a sort of mad-like curiosity.

"You're insane!" Mikey yelled at the man across the room before the soldier that was still standing by him lowered his gun, aiming it at his left eye.

"Ready to blow my brains out," Mikey thought while he very verbally gulped.

Then, the shadow across the room began to speak in his scratchy voice, "You monsters. One of you, one of you ruined my life."

"What are you talking about?" Don asked and got hit on the head by the barrel of the gun which once again directed itself at his head.

The two soldiers looked at each other and smiled. The one by Don stepped behind him, sliding the gun over his shell before placing it at the base of his neck. Don choked back his gasp, they _knew_. They knew where to shoot to kill them. The soldier by Mikey smirked and moved his gun from Mikey's eye and jammed it into the base of his skull.

Yes. They _knew_.

"But how?" Don whispered.

There was no way they would've known where their weak points were unless-

It fell into place right then and there.

"You're him. The scientist that-"

He was cut off by being hit with the barrel of the gun again, cringing when he tried to embed itself into his right cheek. He was sure that the guy had knocked a few of his teeth out of place. The gun then returned to the base of his neck.

Then, the twp trapped terrapins and the one hiding above, gritting his teeth in near madness at the sight of his younger brothers being tortured, were all given the shock of their lives. The figure behind the table took one step into the light and green skin stood out against the gray concrete floor.

Of course this was all for naught when the cloaked figure above dove down, tackling the guy from behind. The other landed painfully on his right arm, a crack resounding out throughout the room. The Ghost of the Jungle glanced up, prepared to throw shuriken at the two gun armed soldiers, but he found that this was not required for at the sight of him, the soldiers dropped the gun and ran for a hidden door in the back of the room.

Mikey and Don jumped to their feet in seconds of being released. The orange banded turtle ran over and quickly untied his older brother's hands. They each grabbed up the guns themselves. Between them, Don was probably the only one that would use it, Mikey didn't like any gun that wasn't a water gun he could annoy his brothers with but they figured that it made them seem more threatening to the lone scientist. Don was the first one at the scientists side, jerking him up by his white lab coat. Mikey had been making his way to the Ghost of the Jungle's side when the cloaked turtle caught the glint of a blade in the scientist's hands.

Silently, like the character he was dressed as, he sprang at the man, both of them tumbling across the concrete floor. When this brawl ended however, both the brown cloak and the white lab coat were pulled away by each other.

That was the moment that Raph found himself facing…himself.

* * *

HAHA! Do you get it? Do you get it?

How did this happen?

Who is Dr. Malkin?

What the heck went on?

Why is Dr. Malkin like this?

Well, I'll try to update tomorrow. Bye.

~Moonsetta


	10. Chapter 9

Hey everyone, I think there's going to be like three chapters of this story left. Well let's began where we last left off.

I don't own the TMNT and I'm looking to get rid of Dr. Malkin but he just won't stay away!

_

* * *

_

Recap:

_Silently, like the character he was dressed as, he sprang at the man, both of them tumbling across the concrete floor. When this brawl ended however, both the brown cloak and the white lab coat were pulled away by each other._

_That was the moment that Raph found himself facing…himself._

_End Recap._

* * *

It was true, facing the red banded turtle that his brothers knew was a copy. The same dark green skin, the same golden color eyes and even the same red mask.

"Dude and I thought one Raph was bad enough," Mikey commented on the side.

Then came a difference between the two turtles, the scientist, still identifiable by a small strip of white clothing hanging from a crack in his shell, spoke. His voice was shaky and without confidence, even stuttering at points but was still deep.

"You, one of you ruined me! You monsters!" the second red masked turtle raising a shaking finger at Raphael.

The familiar red masked turtle growled and pulled his sais from his belt, these would help the others tell the difference, "Look ya cooze, we ain't got any idea what you're talking about now either talk strait or get ready to loose your head."

The scientist started laughing madly, laughing as if mentally unstable. Don narrowed his eyes and walked to one of the side tables where a manila folder sat. He had borrowed it from his father to, once he had gotten the machine, start programming it with the statistics that were required. He scooped it up again and then noticed another folder below it. In the background he heard the Dr./ scientist continue stuttering but he paid it no mind, he reached out and opened the front of the second folder. He almost fell back in shock, there, on the first white page was a far too familiar picture of his eldest brother, chained by the neck, chest and arms to the side of a large cage.

"YOU!" Don shouted, snapping around and pointing an accusing finger at the new turtle in the room.

"You're him! That scientist that experimented on Leo!"

"WHAT!" Mikey and Raph shouted in unison.

"One of you, my specimen, my ruin," Malkin growled under his breath.

It was only maybe half of 1/10 of a moment or maybe not even that, that ended with the scientist turtle on the opposite side of the room, his head leaking blood where it had been forced against the wall and he had a large crack in his plastron that was pouring out blood as well. A puddle of blood had submerged his feet and a splash of bright red was on the wall behind him. He stared up in shock as did two of the turtles.

Raph spun around towards his younger brother.

He stood there. His eyes narrowed, the gun in his hand raised and smoking from a recently fired shot.

"Mikey?" Don breathed, his jaw dropped open at the sight of his little brother.

For Raph and Don they noticed something else about their younger brother, those narrowed eyes contained large, salty, tears that had yet to roll down his face and the smallest turtle's plastron was rising and falling rapidly.

"You…you," Dr. Malkin breathed, "You ruined me."

"What the shell are you talking about?" Raph whispered.

"I know," Don interrupted, his voice harsh, "It's people-no monsters, like you that give scientists bad names. You torture beings in the name of scientist. You're the one who hurt _**MY **_brother."

The purple masked turtle would have gladly walked forward and jammed the nearest sharpest object into the mutant's chest but this became unrequited for three more shots rang out, Mikey's arm shaking as blood splattered against the wall. The scientist fell to his knees, the green skin of his knees scraping across the floor. For Don, he could almost imagine that was his immediate older brother that was being shot, some kind of brotherly instinct had him advancing on Mikey although he clearly knew that this scientist had gone mad, had experimented on his eldest brother and was the reason that brother was currently dieing. The reason they had all been dieing.

"The reason we've all been dieing," Don murmured before turning and raising his own gun.

They didn't see that guns smoking, Dr. Malkin in peril or hear their red masked brother yelling at them to stop. This _thing_ had caused them pain, it had hurt and they wanted to hurt it _back._ That was all they knew. On a subconscious level the purple masked turtle wondered how many round were in the gun but this curiosity was shut down when two flying blades shot across their arms and made both the youngest turtles drop their guns.

"STOP IT!" Raph yelled, finally waking the others up from their daze.

One look at what was left made the others stagger backwards. It was too horrible to describe. The bullets had done their job, very well. Bones stuck out, skin was peeled back, there were strange shaped triangular holes all over the guy.

That's when it hit them…

They had killed one of their own.

Yes, they had fought and killed humans, the local gang leaders who didn't care anything for the innocent, but to find someone, even if not their own kind exactly and then to _kill _him?

Silence was the only sound that was heard.

* * *

"It must be this way," a man mumbled while stumbling through the jungle and trying to hold onto a map in his hands.

He had tripped on everything as soon as he had come to the group of trees.

"There's supposed to be a path, here…or is that a river? No it, oh…"

The lonely guy raised a hand to his forehead and wiped away the precipitation that had built up there since he had started his trek through the overgrown foliage. He was a man of science not a hiker!

He sighed and went to travel on towards what was marked on the map as a large oak tree when the sound of an approaching engine sounded out in the distance. The next thing he knew, he had been pushed against a large tree.

A gasp, "Professor Perry?"

That was the last sound before he blacked out.

* * *

"Casey, you numbskull!" April shouted after getting out of the car to make her way to the unconscious professor.

"Why are you yelling at me? You were the one driving!" Casey protested, getting out as well to pull the skinny scientist into the jeep that they had, 'borrowed' from the local B.W. station in the village.

The pulled professor Perry into the back where April went to examine his head, that would be all they needed, a scientist with a concussion or worst, amnesia.

"Step on it Casey, we have to find the turtles!"

"On it toots."

"Toots?"

"Oh crap," Casey thought, "I just said something stupid again, didn't I?"

_

* * *

_

The blade under skin

_Crimson fir you know its name_

_You have seen its face_

"Funny," Leo thought as he smiled with an expression of acceptance, "The blood seems almost pale."

With that he staggered backwards, a hand over his blood soaked plastron as he struggled to breathe. He then gasped, the blade was there, in _his _chest now, he was pinned by the sight alone, against the tree.

* * *

Ok, note to self, this is getting kind of creepy, as for what happened to Dr. Malkin, that will be explained in the next chapter.

Uh…read & review? I think this story's reached its extreme turning point.

~Moonsetta


	11. Chapter 10

_Flash…_

_The thing clamped its mouth shut, trying not roar into oblivion._

_He reached out and turned the dial, the saw spun faster. He had to get past the plastron, that thick plate was cutting all blades he put to it. Another blade went flying into the fall._

_Dr. Malkin sighed, "That's the 12__th__ one."_

_He glanced back at the creature for a long minute before walking up and placing a hand to it's plastron, the dotted line down his plastron was still there. The saw had chipped away enough that the color of the marketed on line had faded to a dark purple but he still hadn't gotten through the bones. The figure jerked and Malkin jumped back. It was coming off of the drug. He walked around the lab table and scooped up a syringe before inserting the glowing green liquid into what he guessed was the arm of the human-like creature._

_The being was incredible, as he had discovered the past few days after receiving it from the local military force. Although he still wasn't sure what it was. He glanced back at the circular saw blade sticking the wall and shook his head before sighing. Then, he crossed the room and reached up to pull a wrapped up package away from its resting place on a high shelf. _

_As the cloth fell away, he smiled deviously, if steel couldn't cut through the bone, then perhaps diamonds would…_

"_AAAHHH!"_

The memory of the scream, woke the doctor from his pain.

* * *

"Where's Leo? Don't tell me you brought him here with you," Don begged as they made their way out of the building.

"He's Leo," Raph said.

Don shook his head, "Where is he?" he had a bad feeling about something.

"Don't worry Don he's just-"

"I can't believe I did that."

Don and Raph both turned to find that Mikey had stopped and was staring at his shaking hands.

"Mikey," Raph said sternly, walking forward and taking the trembling hands in his own, "It's ok."

The orange banded turtle jerked away, pulling away his still shaking hands, "NO! IT'S NOT OK! NONE OF THIS HAS BEEN OK!"

Mikey gritted his teeth and leaned back against the wall, letting his hands curl into fists before throwing them into the wall behind him. The wall was metal, so surprisingly, two large dents stared back, revealing the imprint of his hands.

"Mikey," Don tried, speaking very softly.

"I hate this," Mikey growled, "First Leo goes away, then he gets home only to be captured, possibly killed, then we find out he was captured the two years he was gone, then the heart valve. When's it going to stop!"

Dark green hands grabbed him before yanking him roughly away from the wall, "Mikey look at me," Raph ordered.

"And I killed _him_," Mikey mumbled, his blue eyes finally rising but holding back the moisture in his eyes.

Truthfully, he was more angry than sad, but either way, he was _upset_.

Raph sighed heavily before pulling his baby brother towards him, "Come on Mike, pull yourself together."

Don opened his mouth to speak but he was cut off by a scream.

"AHHH!"

Their heads snapped towards the doorway at the end of the hallway, the front entrance to the building.

"Hey," Raph thought, "Didn't I leave Leo by that-"

Without another thought, he rushed outside, his younger brothers in tow. The scene before was instantly forgotten when they came across the blood trail that was left on the trunks of the surrounding trees, leading towards what sounded like a waterfall in the distance.

"Let's go!" Raph yelled, rushing ahead of the others, unaware that he was once again taking on that familiar leadership role he never recognized.

When they reached the sight though, each of them felt bile climb up their throats. Being the medic, Don rushed to Leo's side where the eldest was propped up against a tree, breathing heavily and barely conscious.

"I killed _him_," Mikey thought, "I killed the monster that did this. So why am I still angry?"

Raph threw a thoughtful glance to Mikey's face, who was dead set in anger and when the youngest got angry, people moved. Which is exactly what he did. After assuring himself that his older brother was still alive he finally glanced around, this place seemed familiar. That's when he noticed a tree a few feet from him that had vines laying on the ground around it and there was a large holes in the tree. Then he remembered. _He _had made that whole when trying to frighten that one lone soldier that Leo had tied up. If that soldier had gotten free, no he couldn't have gone after Leo, the guy was a coward that ran away with his tail between his legs when they had first arrived. That's when he caught sight a gray and black emblem near the edge of the pit trap Leo had pointed out before.

Curious, he walked over and looked down. He had to hold back bile. Seeing some guy shot multiple times was one thing but pit trap earth spikes? They almost seemed like insects, one of the two guys down there was still twitching. He was still alive.

"He's suffering," Raph thought, pulling away from the edge and turning around, "Good."

Raph walked back over to the others, Mikey looked ready to tear someone's head off and Don was whispering quietly to Leo, who was moving his lips but saying nothing in his mostly unconscious state. Raph sighed, at times like this he found himself pacing and he did so then. Unfortunately, he had begun on the third round of walking in a circle when the leaves on a nearby large bush exploded and some kind of shadow flashed before his eyes. He didn't feel the front of the vehicle hit him and he didn't feel the small hands that pulled out of the way of the speeding vehicle.

When Raph reopened his eyes seconds later he found an orange masked face leaning over him, "Raph wake up!"

"Ow," he said, sitting up once he realized he had been lying on the ground, "What was that?"

"GUYS!"

"April over here. Please tell me you have a medical kit," Don yelled out, waving her over.

"Michelangelo," a new voice said.

Mikey spun around, his nunchucks raised for attack when he realized who was behind him. When he did realize this though he whooped in joy, a great contrast to the anger he held before. He threw his arms around Professor, crushing him.

"I-can not-breathe."

"Oops, sorry," Mikey said sheepishly, dropping him.

He couldn't help but let the anger drain away and let his happiness show. April, Don and Professor Perry would make Leo all better while Raph, Casey and he kept them safe and it was just perfect. He never once thought his imagination was too childish to be reality.

"Professor, we need your help," April said, panic rising in her voice that sent everyone to her side where she complained stoutly about the need for breathing room.

Reluctantly, Mikey and Casey hung back away from them while Raph left to fetch his Nightwatcher suit. The cloak that had donned two generations of the Ghost of the Jungle he had scooped up before he had escaped that crazy scientist with Don and Mikey. The brown cloth was now laying over the unconscious turtle, who still leaning against a tree for lack of self support.

The red clad turtle returned promptly, his armor on but carrying his helmet under his arm. Mikey and Casey looked up silently at his return. Raph walked over to the unconscious blue masked turtle, resting a hand on his shoulder for a few seconds before allowing it to slip off. His eyes fell to the dirt and grass covered ground before he took a seat by the youngest turtle and the crazy vigilante they called a friend.

A few minutes passed, the three geniuses still working over the blue clad turtle, using some of hand held machines for…something.

"Alright," Casey said and lifted his hockey mask, "Someone break this silence its killing me."

"What do you want to me to say?" Raph asked, choosing to glare at the ground instead of his…well, one of his best friends.

In the orange banded turtle's mind it felt like this was that moment. The one you could never describe. It was that time you waited to turn the final page of the comic and figure out what happened in the final battle between the superhero and super villain. The moment stretched on forever and there were those times you held out just a second longer to make the surprise all the more satisfying. This was that moment but in reality it was much more than a moment. Thankfully, since his mind was on the hope that everything would be ok again helped him turn away from the weird Dr. creature-like-them-thing. For a moment, Mikey frowned, not in sadness or anger but in curiosity. What had happened to make him that way. He would've asked Don, or April, or Professor Perry, but they were busy and of course he was sitting next to two hot-blooded, animal fighting vigilantes, he wasn't going to bring anything about Dr. Malkin up in Raph's presence.

It was a long strenuous moment that in reality lasted about ten minutes but finally, the troop of geniuses pulled away and when the others caught sight of their leader, he was sleeping with a peace expression on his face.

"So what's the story?" Raph asked, breaking the second awkward silence that followed.

Don glanced in-between April and the Professor before he sighed and stood up, "The heart valve's not functioning, he can survive about an hour with what remains but-"

"There's no way we can get him home in an hour," Raph said, finishing the sentence.

"Oh, it wouldn't matter if we got him home without a replacement or substitution for that heart valve he'd die anyway," Don said, breathing heavily and placing his aching head against the trunk of the tree Leo still slept at the base of.

"And I'm guessing we could get that machine," April said sadly.

"Wait!" Mikey yelled, unexpectedly finding the obvious solution, "Dude the machine is here. That's why the Proffsor's here. Isn't it?"

The skinny scientist nodded, "The facility they delivered it to lays right here in this jungle. Dr. Malkin should have it secured."

"Dr. Malkin," the turtles whispered.

They looked at each other.

"Who wants to tell him?" Don said, obviously not wanting to be the one to do it.

"Dr. Malkin's the one who caused this in the first place," Raph said, going with his usual strategy of a direct approach to all subjects, "He's the one who experimented on Leo, this is his fault. The guy's gone mad."

"Dr. Malkin," April breathed, "He was the one who survived the ship sinking here."

"You seen him?" Raph asked, shocked.

"Well, no. When I was down searching for any remnants of those stone warriors Max Winters wanted me to find, I met a group of soldiers who told me about him and where to find him. He was supposed to be in a small house near the jungle. He had found an artifact that had symbols close to the ones we found on that stone disk in your shell Raph."

The red clad turtle reached back and ran a thoughtful hand over the crack in his shell. It was nearly healed but still he remembered. He would always remember.

"This was after the Stone Generals right?" Mikey asked.

April sighed, "Obviously Mikey. He wasn't home, but his laptop was sitting on a far table. I thought I would just look, not bother his personal files, just see if it had any information on that artifact. That's when I found a bunch of strange experiments on animals and the horrible reports. When I came upon those files on Leo, I was shocked. I thought I been imagining things but…then I printed them out from some old broken down printer sitting on the floor near the one window. When I got over there to get the papers and make sure they were real, I saw someone walking up the pathway. I ran to the computer deleted the files, along with some others, accidentally and slipped out a back window."

Here April sighed and leaned against the parked vehicle, "Then I jumped on a plane and got home ASAP, which is when you guys first learned of all this, but those experiments…he was mad."

"That he was," Don agreed before glancing down at Leo.

"Guys listen to me!" Mikey yelled, his face crumbling into rare anger once again, "We've got there geniuses, a dieing brother, one hour, a clean facility and the machine to save his life about 100 steps in that direction!" he yelled pointing along the dried blood trail against the trees, "What are we waiting for!"

"The twerp's right, we need to go now. Enough chit chat," Raph said, slipping his helmet on, "Don, April, Professor get Leo on the truck and follow us, Casey stay with them and protect them. There's a chance we'll be meeting some unfriendly faces when we get back there. Mikey, you're with me."

"Yes Fearless Leader," Mikey mumbled under his breath.

"What was that Mikey!"

"Guys just get a move on," Don ordered.

"I'll smack you later," Raph grumbled, "Hey give me Leo's cloak. Here Mikey."

The youngest stared at the cloth like it was the inner core of galactic space ship.

"You wear it idiot," Raph said as he watched the others push the vehicle back so they could follow them.

"But why?'

"Because the guys here are cowards. They'll take one look at the Ghost of the Jungle and throw themselves off a cliff."

"WOW! COOL!"

With that Mikey donned the cloak and the two took off, the sound of an engine following close behind them.

"Let me go out first," Raph said, motioning for Mikey to fall back some in their run.

"But why?" Mikey whined, "That's totally unfair, you'll swamp everyone before I get a chance."

"Because I'm the one in armor idiot."

"Ohhhhhh, I get it."

* * *

Ok I know I promised to explain what happened to make Dr. Malkin look like he does but I've had to readjust the chapters. So that part I had to put in the next chapter.

Oh by the way Alrighter, if you're reading this, I've got an idea for that one-shot request, what if I put your request in this story? I'll make sure to make it big. A huge, dramatic scene, just don't tell anyone it would ruin the ending. If so, then count the entire story as a gift to you.

Read and Review please! Because you all rock! Especially those that review!

~Moonsetta


	12. Chapter 11

Ok, today, I'm tying myself to this chair and I'm not leaving until the rest of this story has been typed up. As an explanation, for those who haven't read it or weren't aware of it, like I was, Stealthy Stories had their 2010 competition and while I didn't win anything, my story "You Have No Idea" was actually nominated for best Leonardo scene.

I have no idea who did the nomination but all I can really do is say thanks to everyone and hope I've caught the one or few people that decided the story was worthy of more than how I treat it.

Yes, I physically abuse my stories, sometimes I set them on fire or print them out and give them to my hamsters for bedding. Once, I stuffed one down the garbage disposal, actually, I think that one WAS "You Have No Idea."

I'm currently still looking for my flamethrower though…

Anyways, enjoy this chapter while I try not to fall under the influence of 'spring cleaning.'

Must resist urge to rearrange furniture

I don't own TMNT.

* * *

"Perfect," Raph thought as the re-gathered soldiers at the facility ran for the nearby cliff and river, throwing themselves into the rushing water and into the dead air as they shouted curses back at the silently giggling figure in the treetops.

"Dude, they just FLEW!" Mikey said as he jumped down while laughing next to his red banded brother.

"You know, ghosts are normally quiet numbskull," Raph said before turning and signaling to the others that the coast was clear.

* * *

2,000 miles away in New York City, a lonely and large mutant rat in the sewers glanced sorrowfully down at a photo on his bedside table. A crack ran across the plastic covering and was slowly degrading into a yellow substance. Even the edges of the photo were curling inward, showing it's age. Splinter frowned and turned to the square of cloth that was laying on his bed.

He reached out and took two diagonal corners in his small hands-

Then he gave in to his parental grief. He dropped one corner of the cloth, pulled the picture from his bedside table and then slipped the picture inside the cloth before he took the other corner of cloth again. He slowly tied the corners over his own walking stick.

He should have left the picture behind…he was a coward.

A moment…

He swiftly stood up strait and grabbed his walking stick, ignoring the loud noise of moving air as the newly constructed cloth bag swung back and forth. A breath, and Splinter made his way to his bedroom door.

No note…

He would leave no note.

When he reached the outside tunnels of the sewers he stopped.

Once again, he waited…

Waited for an excuse, but none came.

He ignored the sting in his heart the awful 'thing' he could taste in his stomach. With no glances behind him, Splinter vanished into the darkness of the sewer tunnels, leaving the place he had for so long called home.

"_Do not search for me, my sons."_

* * *

Leo opened his eyes with a gasp and started struggling.

Why couldn't he breathe?

Who was holding him down?

What had blinded him?

All in one movement, one pair of hands removed the blindfold over his eyes, a second pair that had been applying force to his arms eased off of them and a third was moving something down his throat! There was click and suddenly he was breathing again. When he stopped panicking he glanced up into three familiar faces.

"Mm?"

Leo raised a hand to the long tube that was in his mouth and he felt it continue on down into his throat, what was this?

An olive green hand landed on top of his, "Don't move it Leo. You won't be able to breathe without it."

That calmed the eldest for a second as he stared at the others. He saw Don of course and April was on his right side, cleaning something. The surface underneath him was hard and cold. Metal? He glanced down, yes, he was on a lab table but why?

The red head human saw his uneasy eyes and took a deep breath. They didn't need him freaking out again.

"Leo?" April said softly.

The blue clad turtle let his eyes slide over to her, absentmindedly seeing Casey on the far side of the room, looking out of a window while glaring into the surrounding darkness but was that stream of light the rising sun? The blue clad turtle ignored itand gave April his full attention.

"You've been unconscious for hours."

His eyes grew wide. Why? What had happened? The last thing he remembered was that half drunken soldier coming towards him with a metal stake. He had tricked him into falling into the pit trap and then-there was nothing. Wait-Where were Raph and Mikey?

April must have noticed the panic on his face for she spoke quickly, "They're on the rooftop keeping watch."

"Ah, he is awake."

Leo turned his head and his eyes widened again.

"Leo, I believe that you remember Professor Perry?"

The eldest nodded. But what was he doing here?

Interpreting the question, which he had a knack for doing, the professor cleared his throat before looking at Don, "It's ready for transplant. I'm here to help you Leonardo, ready for open heart surgery."

A strangled gasp escaped Leo before he shivered as Don set some kind of bent metal plank across his abdomen.

"Sorry Leo, but all the chemicals here are for instantaneous death and torture," Don explained, "We have to do this without painkillers."

The eldest's eyes instantly closed. It was the sign. Don nodded and called for Casey to yell at Mikey and Raph to come inside.

"What is it?" Mikey asked, arriving first while Raph walked calmly in behind him, his body absent of his Nightwatcher armor once again while Leo's Ghost of the Jungle cloak was still draped over Mikey's shoulders.

Don took a deep breath, "We're ready to start. Mikey, you're with April, you two are on cleanup."

Mikey gulped but bravely beat down the lump rising in his throat. It was just going to be a little blood, right? He glanced down at the brown cloth covering him, took it off and placed it far away from the table where Leo laid. He shouldn't ruin it with more blood stains.

He returned for Don to finish giving out his orders, "Professor Perry go get it, machine and all. Casey, you go to the rooftop and keep an eye out, this is one of the few times in my life that I can't afford to be distracted by an invading army of soldiers or ninjas."

They all nodded and went to their assigned stations. Raph turned to leave with Casey when Don reached out and pulled him back.

"What is it Donny?"

The purple clad turtle sighed, "Look this is going to have to be live, very conscious, open heart surgery and there's nothing in this lab even close to morphine."

"What? Don, don't tell me that you're saying-"

Don sighed again, he had to cut down, it was becoming a bad habit, "We have aspirin from April's medical kit and Casey found a half empty beer bottle if you want to count it, but that's it."

"Shell!" Raph swore under his breath.

"Exactly, that metal clamp around Leo isn't going to hold him forever, especially with his strength. I need you here, we can't have him moving around or more than likely jerking and jumping up in pain from the procedure."

Raph growled under his breath, but avoided cursing again, "Alright, let's get it over with. There ain't much time."

But by his words, the red banded turtle wasn't sure if he meant the limited amount of time that Leo could hold on, the unknown amount of time the machines they had set up would actually run or the fact that the sun was beginning to rise, so it could be how much time they had before someone came to the facility, wondering what had happened.

In retrospect, time had now, like so many other times, become their worst enemy.

* * *

In his mind, Leo found himself wondering around the lair back in New York City, his body felt the first cut, but his mind stopped the shock of pain sent by his nerves from being sent back to the muscle to make it automatically jerk away. He had to be careful here, yes retreating into his mind, would let him not feel the pain, but then his body would act on its own, following natural instinct, so he had to have some control if he wanted to get through this.

He went through the main room, then the dojo and then the rest of the room, watching movies of his memories. Although he could swear, that as he visited each room, there was a strange shadow in the closest corner, its golden eyes staring him down, trying to make him obey. The way a human would look down to a disobedient and misbehaving puppy.

He assumed that this was simply his mind's manifestation of the pain that his body was feeling, for it seemed to grow larger each time he had to swing back into his conscious mind to stop his body from jumping away from the sharp instruments that he saw for a flickering moment, were buried into his chest.

Still, he flickered from mind induced movie memories to live endurance of pain. Unaware of the shadow's true definition.

* * *

The orange masked turtle focused on just removing the red stuff from yellow bone and grassy green skin. He didn't think about anything else. He could've pretended it was just some random slime he had covered one of his brothers with as a harmless prank, but he didn't. It was just the red stuff.

Just red stuff.

When the blood wasn't flowing too fast, April let her eyes linger on the machine that sat on the table not far from them. It had done it's job, though how Don had gotten it to work so fast, she wasn't sure. It in itself wasn't supposed to be popular but she had found the article and looked it up just a few days ago.

Had it really only been days?

The surgery itself felt like it had taken weeks on its own.

Shaking off the thoughts to clean up some more spilled blood, April frowned before glancing over at the machine again. It was a miracle, really. A printer. A simple office or home appliance that could possibly print life saving body parts from a patient's own cells. Amazing. It had clearly been modified and Don's earlier explanation had presented that the printer's modifications allowed it to print in 3-D, so to speak. So with a copy of the live heart valve cells from the patient, the printer was able to 'print out' or 'build' a perfect match to the heart valves Leo already had in him.

"Suction," Don ordered and April stepped forward, clearing a vein inside of blood.

For herself, April imagined that this was just a giant hole with veins-no small rivulets of magma running through it. Yes, they were simply working on something in a hole in the ground.

* * *

Don set his mind on analytical analysis and froze it there. He didn't have time for anything else. Unfortunately, when the professor was the one transferring 'it,' he found himself with blood soaked but gloved hands and a red stained yellow plastron.

Unfortunately, his mind decided that he needed to be reminded of how his first big confrontation with Leo had gone. Memories. He hated them, but the movie played anyways.

_"Just stay back guys!" Leo said as he continued to dodge Don's attacks._

_"YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT WAS LIKE!"_

_This phrase made Leo freeze. Don shot forward to land a punch but Leo grabbed his wrist and pinned him to the wall. Don struggled for a long five minutes before he lost the strength in his legs and slid down the wall. Leo let him go and stepped back. The leader glanced at his family, a mix of emotions on their faces._

_Leo sighed and turned back to Don, a little anger melted into his voice as he spoke, "You were the leader for two years and you had to deal with so much…"_

_Everything was silent for a minute._

_"Well poor you."_

_Don's rage was instantly ignited and he launched himself at Leo again. Leo turned and pinned him to the other wall._

_"Newsflash Don," Leo said, "I lead for eight years, __**you **__are the one who has no idea what it's like."_

_"YOU LEFT US! YOU NEVER CAME HOME!" Don shouted and broke away before attacking Leo again, "TWO YEARS LEO! TWO YEARS WE HAD TO LIVE WITHOUT YOU AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN CARE! I HATED YOU!"_

Don shook off his memories at the sound of Professor Perry saying his name.

"Donatello, it's done."

The purple clad turtle nodded as he watched the turtle on the table flinch violently as dark green hands kept Leo's shoulders still and in one spot.

"Just hold him down for a little longer Raph, we just need to clean up and hope-"

"Hope what?" Mikey asked, his blue eyes wide as his voice fell.

Don looked up with a serious expression at everyone. He saw April and the Professor giving him strained looks. Leaving the decision up to him if he thought he needed to tell Mikey and Raph.

Finally, Don spoke softly, reaching over to a box on a table nearby, flipping open the lid and revealing the familiar instrument inside, "We had to..." he trailed off.

"Hey that look like what the use to shock people on TV when they're-" Mikey's voice fell again.

Don nodded before locating the thick, black stitches in the medical kit on a rolling table that was beside him.

"Just patch him up," Don ordered himself, "Worry about the details later. You don't have time."

He turned to April, before 'diving in,' "Just make sure those machines keep running smoothly."

The woman gave a sharp nod.

* * *

Unbeknownst to them, below their feet, a dark green skinned, red masked terrapin was devising a plan of his own. He overloaded the pressure in the boiler and stepped back.

A plan that involved many pieces of humanoid turtles.

* * *

Done. With all of it. The rest of the chapters have been typed up so now I can go to sleep.

Goodnight…er actually, good morning.

~Moonsetta


	13. Chapter 12

"_Where am I?" Leo thought._

_He had just been in surgery right? The blue clad turtle rested a hand on his head before sitting up. He was positive that he had previously been laying on a lab table with his chest cut open for the second time in his life. But now…_

_He looked around to find himself laying on the grassy floor of the nearby jungle. How did he get here though? Where were the others? He shook his head. He had to stop with the questions before he asked himself more ridiculous ones. OK. Deep breath. He would just have to find his way via the stars. He can't be far from the village. He glanced up and gasped, for in the midnight sky no moon or stars stared back at him._

"_How's that possible?" Leo whispered. _

_There he went with the questions again. Ok, there had to be a river or waterfall nearby or at least some insects or other animal. No sounds of rushing water met his ears so he listened quietly for the hoot of an owl or call of a nightingale. Nothing echoed back to his ears. This was impossible-but the forest had no sounds._

"_HAHA! Having a good time?" a rough voice asked from the sky._

_Leo turned, spotting a figure in the shadows of the surrounding trees. Beyond all physical sense, there was light from somewhere because he did see the figure and more importantly, he saw the splash of a red mask and golden eyes._

"_Raph! Where are the others? What happened?"_

_He didn't receive an answer, at least, not for a few seconds. After about 30 seconds though, he got an answer, just, not the answer that he thought he would get. The shadow pounced, gold eyes gleaming while silver blades cut through the air's invisible moonlight. _

_Wait! What!_

_He had no time to think before the first sai descended. He had to jump out of the way, but he couldn't move. Blood spilled from his plastron as the second came forward. He felt it pierce his left eye but his scream was lost._

"_You are SO smug, y'know that? You think the world revolves around you, don't ya; that we couldn't possibly survive without the mighty and powerful Leonardo to guide us through our problems, huh? Well, I've got a newsflash for ya: we got along just fine without you!" the red masked figure yelled before shadows covered him._

_He was on the ground now. His plastron open and his hand pressed against the bleeding, empty eye socket. What was going on? Why was Raph doing this? Wait, where was the pain from the injuries? He couldn't feel anything._

_Leo's thoughts were cut off when the shadow changed. This moved faster, but not fast enough for him **not** to see that this next turtle shaped shadow sported a mask of purple and the weapon became a long and familiar bo staff._

_He saw the staff hit the side of his head and lights appeared in front of his eyes as he fell sideways, but the pain was absent._

_"YOU LEFT US! YOU NEVER CAME HOME!" Don shouted, "TWO YEARS LEO! TWO YEARS WE HAD TO LIVE WITHOUT YOU AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN CARE! I HATED YOU!"_

"_Why?" Leo asked, at least he was sure he had put forth that effort to ask that but, what escaped him was a gurgle of incessant mumbling._

_Then something hit Leo in the stomach, the pain from all the injuries returned, hitting him all at once. Then he heard a voice._

_CLEAR!_

* * *

Don took away the paddles of the defibrillator and took a deep breath before dropping one of the paddles and laying a hand over Leo's plastron, which had been sewn back up and was now sporting a gel over his upper plastron where his heart was NOT beating. Everyone in the room was huddled together, even Casey had abandoned his post by the window, all holding their breaths.

Don bit his tongue when his fingers moved through the gel and felt no heartbeat. He checked the vein in the neck. Nothing. He rubbed the paddles together again before shouting, much like they did on television, "Clear!"

All the lights around them were dark except for April's laptop, which Don had aimed at Leo while he tried to shock him back to life, and a small flashlight that Casey had, which provided a kind of cool warmth for the gathered group.

They waited.

"I found a pulse," Don said happily as the others breathed a sigh of relief together.

"I'm going to go find out what happened? Be right back," Raph said, slipping out of the room with Casey's flashlight while the others gathered around Leo, more or less for both the reassurance of life and the light from April's laptop.

"We'll have to wait until he wakes up," Don said quietly.

"We should get cleaned up," April said, reaching for a towel she had in her bag.

They wouldn't be able to do much about the smell of blood, but they felt better when the sticky syrup stuff was off of them.

Downstairs, Raph was muttering curses as the dim flashlight moved around what he assumed was the boiler room? Would a fuse box be down here? He sighed, he wouldn't know. He may know more about machines than Mikey, Leo and Splinter, but he was clueless when it came to mechanical and electrical things other than various music players and automobiles.

"Maybe I should go get Don," he thought before shaking his head, "No, he needs to rest."

What were his other options then?

April.

No. Her, Don and Professor Perry had to be there in case something like the previous and instantaneous failure of the electricity occurred. If they had to shock Leo to life again or if something went wrong with him, those three had to be there.

Casey?

The guy may know automobiles, but anything else…not so much. No offense to his human friend but he couldn't exactly see Casey marching down without tripping on anything, locating exactly where the fuse box was, given this place had one or a few, and miraculously being able to know what switches to flip.

Mikey?

Raph thought back to look on his face when the heart monitor they had dug up in the lab let out a long, screeching beep. No, Mikey needed to be there, for himself. At this point, the red banded turtle thought it was a great time to be selfish, especially for his baby brother.

Leo?

Oh yeah, send the one that's half dead-that's a laugh.

Raph mentally clothes-lined himself for that one. He glanced around the room again. He regretted now not looking around earlier when they had rushed inside after Don declared that Leo had only an hour to live, they had passed this room, in fact…

Raph glanced up the staircase that he had walked down earlier, before climbing half way up it, where he found a heater unit sticking out from the wall. He had thought it would be a good place to keep his Nightwatcher suit for the time being. If there was any trouble they could run down here while he retrieved the suit and begin to fight, just in case those soldiers came back. Then Raph suddenly stopped his climb as something struck him.

Wait, duh! There were lights in the helmet of his Nightwatcher suit! He slapped his forehead as the small flashlight in his hand began to flicker.

"Shell, why didn't I think of that before?"

With that, he set the flashlight down and ducked behind the heater to retrieve the suit but then he froze-

It was gone.

"What the-"

And those would be his last words in the light, for the flashlight flickered into darkness, finally giving up its battery powered struggle.

Raph swore under his breath and reached out in the dark for it, finally giving up after his search proved fruitless and deciding to get back to the others. Of course, this was well… this kind of time. He had no warning as he started up the staircase just a sudden and silent-

BANG!

It came from the top. He raced up the stairs, reaching for the doorknob. It turned and Raph threw his weight against the door. It had been barricaded. He was trapped inside, down below and whatever had trapped him, was up there, with his family.

* * *

I bet people can guess what's going to happen now. Or can you?

Review please?

Cause you all are AWESOME!

~Moonsetta


	14. Chapter 13

Hey everyone, here's your warning:

Warning: Character Deaths!

* * *

The Nightwatcher swung the manriki chain in circles as he made his way down the hallway.

"Do you think Raph got lost?" a voice asked within a room nearby.

Underneath the helmet, Dr. Malkin smiled. Exactly why he was acting this way would be unknown to anyone not in the doctor's mind. It was probable that the lab accident about two years ago had shifted the chemicals in his brain. All he knew was that that creature had destroyed him. No longer could he reclaim his job and he couldn't return to his family. His wife and two eight year old children had been informed that he had died in that accident. But now he was like the freak, green skin, a shell covered back and the bandana he had been wearing during the experiments had been bleached with blood. He wore it as a mask for a kind of personal symbolic reason. He would see that the bandana would next be stained with that creature's blood instead of his.

"Maybe I should go look for him?" another voice asked.

The Nightwatcher didn't bother to cautiously glance around the corner, he just walked right into the dark one, fumbling in the dark of the shadows for a second before he found the switch to the lights the red masked one had mentioned was on his helmet. They came on and then he was met with wide eyes.

"Raph, is there trouble?" Don asked, one of his hands resting on the blue masked creature's upper plastron.

The Nightwatcher shook his head before walking up slowly to the creature. It was in range, but these others…he had to get them away. Once this one was gone, he could take care of the others but for now…he waited two seconds before walking back towards the doorway. The others had gone back to looking over the unconscious turtle. The Nightwatcher backed up into the hallway with a hidden smile before glancing down the hallway at a canopy of loose and leaking pipes.

He smiled before ducking back inside the room. It would be perfect…he just had to wait for the right moment…

* * *

Back below the building Raph had taken out his sais to begin stabbing at the door, but unlike most doors, this one was solid iron. How he wished for the wooden doors of NYC, so easy to break down. Given he probably could've knocked this one down but not with it barricaded like it was.

Then a fact hit him and he looked to the side of the door. He could take the hinges and-

He stopped when he found none.

"Shell," he cursed mentally, "They must be on the other side of the door."

He ran a worried hand over his head then-

That's when the first crash rang out.

"Oh no," he breathed and went back to trying to knock the door over or at least tear it out of the wall if possible but it proved fruitless when the screams started, screams he recognized from his family.

Oh shell! What was he going to do!

That maniac was killing his brothers and friends!

With no other option he ran back down the stairs and started searching for the flashlight that had previously died on him. He found it but still in reality, the batteries were dead. He cursed and slammed it against the wall where it, beyond all possible odds, flickered back to life!

He looked around and spotted something that could get him out of the room. A long pipe about three feet long.

The process was fast and simple. The pipes were connected to the entire water system so. He jumped over, tossed the flashlight down as gently as possible (which wasn't very gently at all) and began to hack away at the connection of two pipes. When the weaker one came lose, water began pouring down and Raph cursed again when he heard another round of screams from above. He broke of another, thicker pipe from a sections, started stuffing into the large, still attached pipe, whatever debris he could find until the last thing to push in was the thinner pipe that he had first knocked loose.. He heard a crack and ducked as the smaller pipe shot out, thanks to the backed up pressure in the larger pipe.

_CRASH!_

Raph raced up the stairs to find the door broken in half by the steel pipe. He did not allow himself a moment of celebrated victory, he threw the pieces of the door away and knocked down the debris that had barricaded the door.

"Guys hold on! I'm coming!" he shouted down the hallway.

When he reached the first moans though he froze in shock. He first found the unconscious Casey outside the door of the room that he had left the entire group in. After fruitless attempts to wake him up, Raph looked inside the room to find everything in pieces or shreds and most importantly…no family members or friends. He cursed and moved his friend to lean up against the wall. A second crash down the hallway made him move on…making silent promises to return for his best friend. How did all of this get so chaotic all of a sudden?

This question though would be the last in his mind before rage took over. He had found his Nightwatcher manriki, wrapped around the throat of one he knew so well.

…

…

…..

…

…

April was leaning against the wall, the chain of the manriki around her throat, her body limp and lifeless.

* * *

Outside the facility that had once been his salvation of life. Leo found himself again, facing death. This wasn't his brother, this was a madman!

"Raph, you've gone crazy!" Don shouted, barely able to stand, only managing it with his bo staff for support.

Leo tried to speak up but the leather made and metal plated glove of the Nightwatcher wrapped around his throat, cutting off his supply of air and his ability to tell the others the truth.

Apparently though, it wasn't needed because Mikey stood up from where he had been knocked down and shouted, "That's not Raph."

The Nightwatcher figure turned his head and blinked underneath the helmet.

"I'll never forget the monster I shot," Mikey murmured.

Dr. Malkin smiled and then turned his head when the flaming debris that had covered the ripped out doors were thrown carelessly into the air. Raph growled, his gold eyes flashing in the surrounding flames while raising his sais with a death glare directed in the intruder Nightwatcher.

Dr. Malkin laughed and threw the helmet off his head while meanwhile pressing his foot down on a hard yellow service. Raphael's eyes darted down to see that the doctor had his weakened, still half dead older brother underneath the metal footwear of the suit.

Don's eyes were darting back and forth between the two red masked turtles in confusion. He had trouble deciding which was which.

"Raph! Let's kill this bastard!" Mikey yelled, running strait for the doctor, only to have to jump out of the way of a stream of bullets from a hidden gone that flashed visible in the doctor's right hand.

Poor thing, he didn't even get to charge in before the doctor raised his gone.

"No!" Leo shouted from below, attempting with his weakened muscles to escape the heavy metal boot pressed down on his chest but failing as the gun fired with a bang!

At the result, Don fell to one knee and threw his bo staff, knocking the gun from the madman's hand, which gave Mikey enough time to deliver an uppercut to the man's jaw, which threw the turtle madman's foot from Leo's plastron, allowing the weakened turtle to turn onto his stomach to glance across the grounds where his breath caught in his throat. Raph was on the ground, a gaping hole in his right shoulder that was bleeding **too much **and his eyes had clouded over to a milky white.

"No," Leo breathed and struggled to stand as Don rushed past him to reclaim his bo staff and help Mikey with the crazy mad man despite the limp in his step.

He managed to trip his way over to his brother's still life form and pull him away from the still burning debris.

"Raph? Can you hear me? Raph wake up? Come on little brother wake up!" tears picked Leo's eyes and he pulled his younger brother closer, his arm and hand shaking as he raised it to feel for a pulse.

None.

Nonexistent.

"No," Leo breathed, a whimper betraying his whisper, "Raph…"

* * *

Mikey met metal plate after metal plate of the Nightwatcher suit with his nunchucks. While he heard the echo as Don's bo staff carelessly hit upon the metal plates as well. They had to face, their wooden weapons weren't cutting it, literally, at all! Of course, they no longer needed to worry about back up. Casey Jones, swallowed by animalistic rage had picked up some of the steel pipes from inside and went right to attacking the monster…no doubt, he had seen April.

Creatures such as birds, insects and rodents were running from the fire, some succumbing to the flames or the larger creature's paths of destruction. An angered swipe pushed the three attackers back so Dr. Malkin could scoop up his gun again. He shot at support beams above the human and purple masked turtle to bury them in the flaming debris before turning to the youngest with a sneer.

Mikey faltered…those eyes…they were like the golden eyes of his older, red banded brother and the madman had the same dark green skin. Could he actually beat this guy? He had apparently already survived numerous shots from that gun before.

The gun erupted and in a sense…so did Mikey.

* * *

Whew! That was exhausting!

Review please? We're almost done. Just one chapter to go!

I'll be amazed if I can manage to conclude all of this in one chapter. Wish me luck!

P.S. Sorry for any mistakes. I was listening to G. I Joe while writing this.

~Moonsetta


	15. Chapter 14

Hey readers, I loved the review output I got for the last chapter. Although, I found it strange that no one noticed that Professor Perry was gone from the entire chain of chaotic scenes! So, we'll start with the professor.

Final Chapter!

I don't own TMNT. Still don't like this story or the movie.

* * *

Professor Perry breathed heavily as his foot slipped. He reached for another higher branch in the tree he was climbing and pulled himself up as the group of soldiers that had been chasing him ran past the tree. When they were out of sight he dropped down from the tree, wiping dirt and mud from his white lab coat before making his way back.

He could barely wrap his mind around it. The fact that Dr. Malkin, one who had always been held in high regard for extraordinary achievements, had done such experiments under radar and now he had taken on the form of the turtles thanks to an accident long ago. Had the doctor truly been that cruel.

When he reached the facility again he found Mikey and the still Nightwatcher suit clothes Dr. Malkin in a battle. But he had little time to be worried about the battle, for he recognized a familiar green hand underneath a burning pile of debris.

"Donatello!" he shouted and ran over, throwing the flaming debris aside.

After removing about two inches of debris the hand twitched and then it's owner pushed through the debris, rising up and pulling an unconscious Casey out with him.

"Where are the others?" Professor Perry asked, grabbing Donatello by the shoulders.

All questions and answers were cut off though when a scream rang out.

* * *

Mikey was pissed. There was no other freaking word for it! First he experiments on Leo, then nearly kills, then kills April, shoots Raph, burns Don and Casey and then he just goes around pretending to be the Nightwatcher!

"NO MORE!" Mikey screamed, barreling towards the madman, soft-shelled bullets bouncing off of his hardened plastron. His nunchucks flew up and this was perhaps a quick moment of luck, the nunchuck went up, the gun in the doctor's hands flipped over and still continued on shooting, right into his skull. He fell and Mikey growled as he saw the doctor raise his gun towards Leo, who was whispering to the still form of his immediate younger to wake up. Though it was pointless…

Mikey snarled, letting whatever he had in common with Raphael overtake him. He slammed his foot down on the other's three fingered hand. He didn't care if this thing did look like Raph. This creature was NOT his brother! He kicked the gun away and pulled back his nunchucks before sending them both forward. Hearing the one in his right hand break through the skull while the other in his left hand snapped the neck in half.

For good measure he picked up the gun and shot until their weren't any bullets left then he snapped the gun in half making full fledged promises to burn the body. Should this monster ever come back.

Looking all around he realized one thing, he wanted to go home…

Home…

He got to the point where he was about to notice how much blood he was covered in and what he had did. But he had gotten rid of the monster, he had saved everyone. So why did he feel like something was missing?

"Raph wake up!" Leo cried out.

Everyone's eyes darted to the two weakened turtles but that's not what made their eyes widen. It was the fire around them, everywhere. It's not that fire was unusual but what was happening to it. The red, yellow and orange flames seemed to be dancing and growing warmer…

"Don what's going on?" Mikey asked, sounding like his old self again as he walked up behind his purple banded brother.

"I don't know Mikey…Look up there!"

Mikey and Professor Perry glanced up to where Donatello was pointing. A shadow drenched figure was standing on the rooftop of the burning building, with something in it's hands. This parcel was let go after a strong wind passed and surprisingly, it floated down and draped itself over Leo's shoulders. His Ghost of the Jungle cloak! The blue clad turtle glanced up at the being before his eyes widened in shock.

"You're-" he didn't finish his sentence but the figure nodded and then turned before exploding into multicolored lights which floated down towards Leo and Raph, much like the cloak magically had.

The lights surrounded the two before vanishing and the fire continued to burn until all you could see were white and blue flames.

It's too hot for tears, Leo decided and sucked in a breath before he froze as the almost silent but unnoticeable gasp of breath from the form in his arms. He glanced down into eyes that were no longer milky white, but burning with a golden shade.

(A/N: Cue Raphael fan girl screams-HE'S ALIVE!)

Eyes met and there were silent acceptances of smiles as Raph pushed himself up. He closed his eyes a second time and the white and blue fire around them returned to it's former red, orange and yellow hued state.

There were silent rejoices in the air for a total of three seconds before the roof of the building behind them caved in and the whole place caught fire.

"April!" the hardhead vigilante yelled, attempting to run back into the flames.

He had seen the body but…he couldn't just leave her there. Even if she was gone. He loved her.

"Casey wait!"

Unfortunately, neither Don, Professor Perry nor Mikey could stop the hard head vigilante from running back into the building.

"We must get out of here," Professor Perry said.

"I agree," Don said with a sharp nod as he and the others rushed over to help Leo and Raph who couldn't manage to walk on their own.

"But Casey… and April's…" Raph struggled to say the word both from being choked up from sorrow and from his haggard breathing.

"I'll go," Mikey said, "Professor Perry, you take Raph," he said, sliding his brother's arm over the professor's shoulders.

"But Mikey," Don protested.

The youngest turtle shook his head, "You're limping, Leo just had open heart surgery and Raph just got shot. Stay in the forest, I'll find you."

Leaving no room for arguments, Mikey slipped back inside the building just as another part of the roof caved in.

"We must leave," Professor Perry said once again.

"But Mikey-" Don protested again.

"Don," Leo said through a deep breath, "He just took on Malkin, he can get them out of there. I trust him."

"We must go now," the professor said again, helping Raph stand while heading towards the edge of trees in the nearby jungle. Don hesitated before Leo cleared his throat beside him.

"Don?"

The purple clad turtle slipped Leo's arm over his shoulders and quickly made his way after the professor. He'd come back. He'd be right back for his little brother…

At least…this is what he kept telling himself as more sounds of crackling fire and crashes of stone and wood smashing together echoed into his ears.

* * *

Minutes had only passed when the small group had found a small cave inside the forest that had been partially burned out. Unbeknownst to the others, Leo knew the cave. He had called it home for so long...so long ago.

"Leo?" Don asked, kneeling down to get his older brother's attention.

The blue clad turtle glanced up, curiosity.

"That, figure on the rooftop. Who was he?" Don asked and then glanced away before gathering the courage to look into Leo's eyes, "You know him."

The eldest felt his mouth turn upward into a smirk that could rival Raphael's most sarcastic faces.

"It was nothing Don."

"But Leo-"

"I'm going to sleep. Wake me up when Mikey's back."

"Leo!"

Too late, asleep. Don sighed in aggravation and turned to look at Raph instead-

Asleep as well.

After seeing that there was nothing more he could do for either of them, Don returned to the mouth of the cave where Professor Perry was watching for danger and sat down next to him.

"I sure hope Mikey's ok," Don whispered, not intending for the Professor to hear him.

"I'm sure that he will be fine Donatello. You four are quite robust when it comes to dangerous confrontations."

Don rubbed his eyes, "I don't understand so many things. I get that Malkin was the scientist that did those crazy experiments on Leo about two years ago, but what exactly happened."

"From what you told me of Leonardo's tale back in the laboratory, I assume that whatever this accident was happened on their ship in the village's bay. After the accident that damaged the ship, whatever it was, and affected Dr. Malkin, somehow, consequences inclined the way I hypothesize that an entering stream of water or a window broken from pressure swept your brother outside the ship. It would explain how he woke up on the very edge of the bay."

"But Professor Perry?"

"Yes Donatello?"

"What kind of experiment would possibly transfer such specific DNA to a human from a mutant?"

"I don't know. Though from what I saw of my old college, I almost find it impossible to believe that it was Leonardo that he had captured, for his scientifically inherited traits seem to meld more in similarity with Raphael."

Don nodded, "That's true, and I guess it only helps confirm one theory of mine."

"And what is that?"

Don bit his lip as his eyes searched the edge of the forest, "We have been curious in the past if we truly are brothers. It being Leo who was involved in the experiment and yet for Raph's traits to be the concluding result, it does support the theory that at least _they _are related in some form."

"There are tests-"

"No," Don said sternly, holding up his hand, "It's better we don't know. We decided it a long time ago."

Professor Perry smiled, "I see."

Silence settled between them for another minutes before the Professor gained the courage to speak, "I do not understand though, who was that shaded figure on the laboratory rooftop. It is beyond scientifically adept means how he exploded into nothing but lights. I thought something was wrong with my eyes."

"Actually Professor, when April came back down here after Leo returned home, she found news that a new person was parading around as the Ghost of the Jungle. I don't know who it is, but I'm beginning to think that we've come upon, ever since the Winter's incident an abnormal and-"

"Donny!"

The two scientists turned their heads to the tree line. Deep in the forest they saw something emerging.

"Donny! Leo! Raph! Professor!"

"That's Mikey," Don whispered and shot off into the forest, Professor Perry right behind him.

Back inside the cave, a warmth was pressing against Leo's plastron and he opened his eyes to see a ghost staring back at him. If his body, including his face, hadn't been paralyzed by pain, he probably would've looked shocked at the cloaked figure kneeling in front of him and staring him down. Fortunately, by the time he was able to move, he was also able to recognize the figure.

"the Ghost of the Jungle," he whispered in the quietest voice that he could manage.

The figure nodded before raising a transparent tentacle-like hand towards his younger brother, who was still sleeping soundly beside him.

"What do you want with him?" Leo asked, trying to lean forward, fearing the entity had come to take Raphael.

the Ghost of the Jungle reached out and surprisingly, _pushed_, Leo back to lean against the wall.

"I will not harm him."

Did it really just speak. Yes, it just spoke. The most disturbing thing though, was that Leonardo was able to recognize his own voice coming from the apparition. The ghost then turned to the red masked turtle and reached out with the ghostly tentacle, to press it lightly onto the crown of Raphael's head. Leonardo watched closely and his jaw dropped as the bullet, as well as the wound it had made, faded from reality, as if they had been illusions all along.

It was then that Raph opened his eyes. He shook off the hand he felt on his head and tried to support himself with his right hand against the cave floor, but his wrist gave away the strength joint and he fell to the side. The hand slipped off and the red banded turtle was out once again, thankful that he had at least found the strength and endurance to hold reality in his gaze for a few moments.

The blue banded turtle turned his head just as Raph had fallen sideways after shaking off the ghost's hand and he found his younger brother sleeping even more peacefully than before, this time with no trouble breathing, on his left shoulder. Leo smiled affectionately, little brothers. Who could understand them?

"He is well," the phantom said slowly before rising up and floating to the cave entrance.

"Wait," Leo protested, "Who are you?"

"I am the Ghost of the Jungle," the apparition whispered, not bothering to turn around to face the two exhausted turtles.

A wind blew, throwing back the figure's hood. He turned then to stare back at a wide eyed Leonardo. He was pale and transparent.

The truth hit the blue masked turtle like a ton of bricks. He was real. The Ghost of the Jungle was real! But-

The ghost smiled, "Gracias, mi amigo. I thank you, I needed a break."

With that, like before, the ghost exploded into multicolored lights that were blown away in the next passing wind. Needless to say, when the others arrived back from helping Mikey with April and Casey, their leader was once again, unconscious.

* * *

Mikey almost viewed the situation as funny.

Almost.

He watched with tears in his eyes as the emergency lights of the helicopter flashed. Beside him, Don had nearly choked himself by jamming his fist down his own throat to try to keep himself from crying out loud.

"Donny, go check on Raph and Leo. I'll make sure they leave ok."

"Mikey," Don said quietly staring at his younger brother in a new light.

"Go on," the youngest turtle said, "Go check on Raph and Leo. When they're better we'll head home."

The purple clad turtle nodded and turned away before turning again and seeping his little brother into a hug, "Thanks for going back Mikey."

The embrace was returned half-heartedly at first and then increased in fervor. The older turtle vanished back into the forest while Mikey turned back to the emergency helicopter where white coated lab doctors were loading their old friend inside on one of the stretchers. April lay dead as ever. The Professor was talking to one of the medical staff, knowing how everything had transpired, he was more than likely making up a story that would give logical reasons for the destruction of the laboratory in the jungle. Casey was still injured from massive burns in the fire when he had run back into the burning laboratory to grab April.

Maybe he thought that there had still been a chance…

Mikey closed his eyes and sighed as the wind blew tree branches across the scene on the opposite shore. Yes, with the police officers and medical team from the nearest large city, peace had been brought. Many of the 'Black Wolves' soldiers were being carted away in large armored vehicles.

A frown came onto the young turtle's face, a frown of the clearest determination and satisfaction, he had made sure to burn Malkin's body in the laboratory's fire. They couldn't risk him being found. It was a danger to their small family. When the helicopter took off into the sky, Michelangelo turned away and made the trek back to the cave where they were hiding out until the local forces calmed down a bit or they could escape by lucky large amounts of cloud cover.

As the youngest turtle walked, he smiled with a thought in his head, "Good thing Leo was here for years. He knows how to survive."

Finding the cave was easy for him. As he walked inside he smiled again at the sights around the cave. Don was studying some kind of lizard, no doubt trying to keep his mind off of the loss of their friends. Raph was still sleeping against the furthest wall, Leo's cloak draped over him as a makeshift blanket. Leo himself was cooking a strange looking plant over the fire.

"What's that taste like?" Mikey asked, his smile growing on his face as he sat down next to his eldest brother, who would undoubtedly, live.

Leo turned his head and smiled back at his baby brother, "It's called Luna-Vine, 'spirit of the moon' and it tastes like candy canes."

"Really?" Mikey asked wistfully, his blue eyes doubling in size.

"Try some," the eldest said, offering over the plant, making silent promises to locate that coco bean tree in the morning for some surprise treats in the morning.

"Hmm."

The sound made the three conscious turtle's heads turn towards the awakening Raphael.

"Uh," Raph groaned, resting his hand against the top of his head, "What happened?"

Mikey quickly ate the plant. Wow! It did taste like candy canes! Don then went back to his examination, leaving their leader to get up and inform their red banded brother of the missing parts of the tale.

One hour later, Raph was sure his jaw had fallen from his face and landed on the ground, "You're telling me that the numbskull over there took down Malkin!"

"He did," Leo said as they stared across the fire at the curled up sleeping figures of their younger brothers.

Leo's cloak was now draped over them.

"What a nut," Raph said while shaking his head.

"So, what did you learn here?" Leo asked, looking sideways at his immediate younger brother.

"I guess, a lot of stuff," Raph said with a tilt of his head. He was still trying to get past the fact that the Ghost of the Jungle was real and had healed his bullet wound, which he could've died from.

He had managed to escape his thoughts of their human friends by storing them deep into his mind for later questions.

"I think I get it…well, I understand something," Raph said suddenly, drawing the eldest turtle out of the meditation that he was about to pursue.

"What's that?"

"Master Splinter's contradicting everything."

Leo held back his smiled, "How's that?"

Raph sighed, staring deeply into the fading flame of the small fire that still dimly burned in the center of the cave, "All our lives he's told us to stay in the sewers. Now look at us."

"True," Leo said with a frown.

"I think I do understand this though. We've always been told to work as a team, rely on each other."

Leo nodded, "Yes, we need-"

"But there's another part of that that humans, even us, missed."

"What do you mean Raph?"

The red banded turtle looked over and Leo's eyes faltered. His golden eyes still resembled that monster's so greatly, but the light from them was different. For Malkin, the light had been that of a burning demon but Raphael's was the one of a guardian seraph. He could see that.

"I mean, it's hard to say. I think you were right. It's more a spiritual thing than a knowledge thing. Wisdom."

"Go on," Leo urged.

Raph ran a hand across the back of his neck, like he would get grilled for saying something wrong, "The other side of team work. Just one. I think what I mean to say is…you have to learn to stand on your own. You have to be your own hero, you have to save yourself, before you can call yourself someone else's hero."

Leo reached up and rested a hand on Raph's shoulder, "It's not something you can explain in words, you just have to understand that you need to be someone else's leaning post. Despite being me, I did rely on you three a lot back then. Don took care of wounds, Mikey cooked, played pranks on all of us to make me happy, Master Splinter gave me advice and you-"

Leo paused and Raph sweated out the following moments of silence, believing that his older brother couldn't think of any simple instance where he was helpful.

The eldest smiled, "Despite all the fighting, I leaned on you the most."

The hotheaded turtle shrugged off the hand, "Enough of this spiritual stuff, I'm going to sleep."

The blue banded turtle grinned and laid down next to his younger brother, watching the light of the fire, still dancing, even though it was dieing.

Two days later, at 3:00am, the turtles grabbed at the opportunity, climbing aboard a ship heading for Cape Canaveral. Soon, they would be in Florida, then it wouldn't be that difficult to sneak aboard a plane that would pass of NYC's bay.

Later, one question would be the only one on the turtles' minds as they walked the long passage on their way back to their lair.

"Hey Mikey?"

"Yeah Raph?"

"I meant to ask you, what happened to your mask?" the hothead asked, sliding a sai along the wall beside him.

The youngest turtle lifted his hands to his face. Indeed, his mask was gone!

"I must have lost it in that fire when I was rescuing April and Casey," Mikey said, "Don't worry, I'll make myself another one."

"Which reminds me," Leo said, looking back at the two, "I just wanted to say that I'm proud of you Michelangelo. You fought and won against an enemy none of us could defeat and you rescued our friends."

Mikey blushed, "Oh, it was nothing."

"Mikey, don't be so modest," Donny said, walking up from behind the mask-less youngster.

The youngest turtle smiled, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "I just did what I had to."

"Besides," he thought, "I said I wasn't going to lose my big brother again and when I say something. I darn well mean it!"

The eldest sighed as previously hidden thoughts caught up to him and he stopped in the tunnel. The others stopped and stared at him.

"What is it Leo?" Raph asked.

"Is something wrong?" Don asked, his thoughts going strait to his brother's health.

Mikey narrowed his eyes and moved to Leo's side, placing a hand on his shoulder. He could guess what was going through the blue banded turtle's head.

To put it in perspective, Leo got captured, needed a life saving miracle that his brothers and friends risked life and limb for and because of that, they had all been hurt. The two younger turtles had been captured and tortured, Raph had been shot, Casey had been burned beyond recognition and April had lost her life. All because he needed something that was so out of reach. Heck, they would do it again, but this was Leo.

It finally seemed to hit the others like a rockslide.

"Guys I-" Leo's sentence was cut off first by Don.

"We'd do it again if it was needed Leo."

Then Raph-

"You start on that Fearless and I'll tear out your tongue!"

Then, the eldest surprised them all by laughing for a short moment, "I'll be dwelling on it for awhile, but I'll get over it eventually."

"And we'll be right by your side bro," Mikey said with a smile and wink.

"I just-"

"Don't even start Fearless," Raph said quickly.

"No, it's not what you think," Leo protested, "Just- thank you. All of you."

It was then that the eldest finally turned to look at all of them, "You're the best little brothers ever. All of you."

"Anytime bro," the other three said in unison.

With a final shared smile, they opened and entered the door to their home.

"Master Splinter! We're home!" Mikey yelled.

Silence. The turtles looked at each other and then spread out, looking for their father and master.

* * *

In Japan, across the ocean, a lone figure was curled up before a grave stone, old, wisdom filled eyes, staring up at the sky. His sons will have returned. His Journal would be found eventually, thank goodness he had not said where he would be going in it. Like his sons, he had returned home. The quiet life he had in Japan with his Master.

The name _Yoshi _had almost dissolved away completely from the gravestone, but it still held his master's warmth. Good, the warmth was comforting as Splinter felt his heart literally swelling inside his chest. This place was isolated, good.

* * *

Still, deep in the jungles of Central America, a shadowed figure stood on the tips of the treetops, looking over the debris of the burned down laboratory. A shooting star passed over it's head and it let it's hood fall over it's face before he dissolved into the multi colored lights that had become his essence.

There was a difference though, beyond the white and blue lights he had originally had in his younger haunting days, three new colors had joined them.

The blue masked turtle's spirit had already been revealed to him, it had been long ago. Now though, the colors of red, orange and purple had joined them. He had captured a bit of each of their spirits. It would sustain him for so much longer before he was forced to retreat into himself to recover the energy it took to remain in the world.

As the lights blew away on the drafts of wind. It did not notice the moving rubble below.

On the ground, the burned remains of the laboratory shifted and a dark green hand peeked out, it's three fingers wrapped around an orange mask.

Unlike the dead flames…this continued to burn…

Revenge.

* * *

THE END

Woohoo! The end! Now I better get to the kitchen and fix myself something to eat. I hope you liked the story, because I sure didn't! -_-'

Review please!

And people out there, continue a good story before I go mad!

~Moonsetta


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